Printed book
Namn och bygd 2024 – Tidskrift för nordisk namnforskning
Eva Nyman (ed.), Staffan Nyström (ed.), Inge Særheim (ed.)
Series Namn och bygd, 112
Out of stock
- Published 2025
- Issn 0077-2704
- Namn och bygd, 112
- Type Paperback
- 139 pages
- Swedish
Färs härad
Abstract
The Scanian district name Färs härad has hitherto not been satisfyingly interpreted. This article attempts to interpret its name as dehydronymic, an approach that has yet to be tried. The interpretation builds upon a reconstruction of a hydronymic pair consisting of old names for Lake Vombsjön and the stream Kävlingeån with its tributary Björkaån, the modern names of which are late formations. Many of the district’s settlements are concentrated around Björkaån and Lake Vombsjön. An old name, the Old Danish *Fær m. (Proto-Scandinavian *Farjaʀ) is reconstructed for Lake Vombsjön. The name is derived from a reconstructed Old Danish name *Far f. (Proto-Scandinavian *Farō) for Kävlingeån with its tributary Björkaån. The stream name is conceived of as a secondary name formation to the appellative far f. ‘journey’ (Proto-Scandinavian *farō), extant in Old Swedish, motivated by the stream’s likely function as a waterway in prehistoric and early medieval times, which is discussed at some length. It is suggested that the district name Färs härad, Old Danish Færshærath, contains a genitive of the lake name Old Danish *Fær m. This places Färs härad in an established group of dehydronymic district names extant in Denmark and Sweden.
Keywords
place-names; district names; hydronyms; river names; lake names; dehydronymic derivation; dehydronymic name formation; Scania; Skåne
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