2982: London’s “River River” Feb 19, 2025

London was established by the Romans, but the river on which it was founded along, the Thames, is a Celtic name. It might not have been the name of the river, per se, but from a Celtic root simply meaning Proto-Celtic tamesās, meaning ‘river’ or simply ‘waters’, but also ‘darkness’. This connection between water and darkness is also evident in other Celtic words, such as dubros ("water, dark"), from the Proto-Indo-European dʰubrós. The name's association with "darkness" suggests a broader symbolic link to water’s murky, ever-moving qualities, as opposed to in Romance and Germanic languages where the words are distantly related to older meanings of “flow; undulate”. This etymological pattern is seen in other river names across Europe, like the Taff, Tamar, and Tiber. The clear majority of European river names, irrespective of modern linguistic communities, come from Celtic names, from a time when the Celts dominated the continent.