Mancunio
Attested: Mamucio on iter 2 and Mamcunio or Mancunio on iter 10 of the Antonine Itinerary; Mantio/Mautio/Mancio at position 109 in the Ravenna Cosmography
Where: Manchester Roman fort at SJ832976.
Name origin: Possibility 1: ‘on the left’, from Latin mancus ‘maimed’, which had a special meaning in the Roman army, because a soldier whose right arm was damaged and needed to wield his sword with the left hand was posted on the left of the line. As the Romans advanced north in Britain their roads formed a sort of ladder, with two main uprights and a series of rungs across the country. Manchester was on the left of a major road across to York. Possibility 2: Graeco-Latin mamma ‘breast’, probably onomatopoeic, might describe the slight elevation in the nook of a river confluence, on which the Roman fort sat, as drawn thus in Wikipedia, an idea favoured by Rivet & Smith and weakly supported by the possible meaning ‘river harbour’ for final -cunio.
Notes: The Cosmography's handwritten forms, shown here, might be read as Mantio, Mautio, and Mancio. In mediaeval handwriting lower-case c and t are remarkably similar, as are u and n. Generations of Manchester folk grew up calling themselves Mancunians.
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Last edited 27 February 2022 to main Menu.