Magis
Attested: Magis, where the Praefectus numeri Pacentium was based, listed in the Notitia Dignitatum between Maglona (probably at Wigton, or possibly Blennerhasset) and Longovicio (probably somewhere coastal).
Where: Burrow Walls fort, at NY00363004, by Workington on the Cumbrian coast, at the mouth of the river Derwent, was only a guess by Rivet & Smith, because the Notitia does not supply a location. However this site (or possibly another Cumbrian river mouth) is an excellent fit to the meaning of Latin magis, as discussed below. A technical report on the “Geology of Workington and Maryport” mentions extensive deposits in the Derwent and Ellen valleys terraced “3-5 m above river level”.
Name origin: Latin magis ‘platter’, from Greek μαγις ‘kneading trough’, probably came ultimately from PIE *mag- ‘to knead’, which led in English to make, macerate, masonry, etc. If this developed a geographical sense (possibly analogous to Sanskrit mahI ‘earth’) it might have applied to any area of flat ground that was put to good human use. Hypothetically, this entered the “extended Latin” of place names across the Roman Empire and developed semantically in much the same way as πλατη ‘flat object’ led ultimately to plate and piazza in English.
However, Welsh maes and Irish mag are usually claimed to descend from proto-Celtic *magos- ‘plain, field’ (Matasovic, 2009:253), whose deeper etymology is uncertain, though PIE *meg- ‘great’ is often suggested. That has no recognized English cognate, but maid is the obvious candidate, as seen at places like Maidstone and Maidenhead, or Magdeburg in Germany, or Machelen in Belgium, as discussed by Udolph (2012:45-48). The implication is that a word like *magad ‘great’ existed in Germanic languages and survives mainly in place names, because its everyday use has become confused with a similar word for ‘unmarried woman’.
The word Maidan ‘town square, public gathering place’ spread into many Turkic languages and their neighbours, probably from an Iranic original that Stetsyuk traces to the area north of the sea of Azov, between the rivers Don and Dniepro. Hypothetically, that word spread west, to have Germanic and Celtic descendants.
Notes: This analysis seems like a good way to explain most of the 60-plus place names across the Roman Empire that end in –magus or similar (Sims-Williams, 2006:27-29). The places concerned tend to be small towns, associated with leaders (Caesaromagus, Augustomagus, Juliomagus, etc) or water (Brocomagus, Maromagus, etc), or described as “new” (Noviomagus), which manifestly do not fit the idea of vast open prairies. So Rivet & Smith (p287) and Delamarre (2003:213) accepted a sense development to ‘market’, with a sociological (economic/political) explanation for the many Newmarket-style places involved (Falileyev, 2010:23:24). Is it possible these commentators have got the chronology wrong and the relatively rural sense seen in later Celtic parallels developed after the relatively urban, Graeco-Latin ‘town square’ sense? One wonders how many other –magus places were on river terraces relatively safe from floods.
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Last edited 1 February 2025 to main Menu.