Thames

 

The Thames has a wide estuary

Some British etymologists believe that the word Thames is pre-Celtic. [1] That is because no link with genuine 'Celtic' words could be found.

Thames = te + em + s. In Latin : Tamesa.

On the Continent there are rivers called Eem (Holland), Eems (border Holland-Germany), Amstel (The dam on the Amstel is now called Amsterdam) and Emme (Switzerland, compare: Emmenthal cheese). There is a major chance that it is an ancient German word for river (Van Dale Etymology Dictionary) There is a probable relation with ama (Latin), amei (ancient Greek) ‘(large) bucket (when fire)’, a word also used in the Middle Ages for a measure of capacity for liquid things [Dictionarium Latino-Gallicum (by Fr. Noel) Bruxelles, 1828].
Amnis: Latin (1) stream, broad and deep river, brook, also abstr. 'tendency' (2) water [Dictionarium Latino-Gallicum (by Fr. Noel) Bruxelles 1826].
Modern rivers with similar names include the Ems in Hampshire, the Emm Brook (which flows into the Loddon and thence into the Thames).

 

The Amstel, the Eems, Eem and the Thames have in common their sudden widening of the river, their estuaries, the river leads to or has a basin, a wide body of water. 'Ham' is an old English word for where the sea is hemmed in by land, an in depth elongated bay. The English have the odd reflex to believe that all words came from somewhere abroad. In this case, it is thought to be of Old Norse origin. But the word exists in Dutch as 'inham'. This means that the word is in fact 'shared' in all coastal German areas.

Proto-English ‘te’ (aphonic ‘e’) has evolved from the old PIE-word *tho in modern English as ‘at’ or ‘to’ according to the context and region (OED) [2]. South-east Old English preferred 'et'.
The original river name was Eems or Ames. Thames (Te-emse) referred to the riverbanks in the London area (aT Ems/Ames), as well as to that particular section of the river. The 's' at the end might be a declension or means 'water' [3].

Typical for natural estuaries is that their banks are regularly flooded, especially at spring tide. The height of this tide is difficult to predict as it can be combined with a northerly wind and storm. Building a house close to the water is hazardous under these conditions. So people searched for a place that was safe enough. This place is found more upstream. At a certain point, the floods are reduced to a minimum. This place on the Thames river banks is the region of London. That river section was during the Bronze Age probably called 'Temse' , 'where the estuary (and its floods) begins'.

Contractions of 'at-'+noun remained common in Old English (OED). The Romans also contracted words. An example is Tervanna (Northern France) from 'ter Wanna' = at the Wanna (river). Tervanna was the administrative capital of the Morini tribe. A 'v' was read 'w' or 'u' in Latin. The modern name for Terwanna is Therouanne, from the original Dutch name 'Ter Wanne'.

As more houses were build there, the place became known as 'Lands (e)t Ames' (in modern English - see lower: London). This place became the most important point where the river could be crossed without having to swim. Travelers soon called the river itself 'Temse' and kept 'Lands' (modern English) or (proto-English) 'Landen' for the village of ferrymen, fishermen and merchants.

When the Romans settled, the word Tamese was already used for the river itself.

Etymology of Thames: ‘aT (the) ames’ = 'place where the estuary begins'. The Romans wrote: Tamisa or Tamesa. [4]

The 'h' in Thames is an attested grammatical error, the name is to be pronounced 'Tems'.

There is a city in Flanders, Belgium, located upon the river Schelde, that has the name Temse. In French: Tamise. There the river suddenly widened in ancient times, that is, before the river was captured (later) between dykes.

There is a Temse in Germany, a short natural channel between the river Warnow and the Butzower lake (village of Butzow, Mecklenburg, north-east Germany). Here also it refers to a 'wide water body' (lake).

Humber

There is a remarkable similarity with the river name 'Humber'. In the first part we recognize the same 'ham'. The last part ('ber') means 'brown'. The animal 'bear' is also thought to mean 'the brown one'. A visit to the Humber will convince anyone of its brown color. So, Humber = brown ham, wide brown water. A clear Germanic word.

As the word Thames shifted in meaning from the banks of the river to the river itself, the word 'lands' on the shore gradually replaced it. This could have happen after the 8th century BC. See next :

London

 

Nobody seems to know where the name London comes from. There is officially no etymological explanation for the Latin name Londinium. What is certain is that it was not the place of mr. Londin. All names, including family names, had a meaning, and clearly ‘Londin’ means nothing, it’s just a displacement of the problem. An alternative explanation is simple: Landen, if one accepts that the place-name was originally proto-English. ‘Land-en’ (aphonic ‘e’) is an ancient English, but still used in Dutch or German, plural for ‘land’.

‘Land’ meant originally: a good place to build a home upon, the house with its surrounding grounds. Ideal places were sandy soils, as often found near the sea. Therefore: ‘inhabited sandy place’. Later, the word referred mainly to the terrain adjacent to the dwelling. The origin of the word is German although the Gauls also knew the word (Les Landes, a region in South-West France – the name could have been given by the Franks). The explanation would be perfect for the place where London is, and quite logic. London must have been called Landen before the Romans came. Probably as a small settlement just before the widening delta of the Thames. A boat brought passengers to the other side of the river. The Romans must have found the location excellent and made a 'big' city of the former village (with a staggering 10 000 inhabitants). For more about that figure, click here. Its Roman bridge provided the only way by land to go north (or south) in east-Britain. The Romans latinised Landen into Londin and added ‘–ium’ for declension purposes. Place-names like Landen or with -land occur also in the other Germanic regions.

The place-name 'Landen' replaced the earlier place-name 'Tems'.

This explains also the French version: Londres. 'Landen' with '-en' plural was not the only possibility. A more High German '-er' ('Lander') could also be used. In middle Dutch there was some sort of competition between '-en' plural and '-er'. Eventually '-en' would prevail in Dutch. There was a similar plural battle in England: child -> childer -> childeren (children). Some regions used more '-en' and some more '-er' plurals. Later, '-en' became standard (probably in the southeast) and people forgot that '-er' was already a plural [5]. The '-en' plural won the game, just before it was replaced by the now common (and French) '-s' plural. The French understood it was a plural, but must have obtained the name from '-er' users. So they added their own plural '-s' and pronounced it Londers or (today) Londres.

The Ravenna cosmography (Vatican codex) refers to TAMESE as a place, not a river, just after LANDINI. However, Londinium Augusti is also mentioned. The Ravenna cosmography is thought to be a copy of a copy of a copy.... of several old documents (road descriptions) which were compiled and is far from precise. It's possible that Landini was the native place name for London (mentioned by travelers?) but believed to be a different place by the Italian copiers who had no idea. Landini was never attested as a stand alone place in Britain.

There is a village near Brussels called 'Landen'. There are many place names in the Low Countries and Germany with the word 'land' in it. So, London as a place name is far from unique.

Around 1450 AD the Chancellery at Westminster decided to uniform the English spelling as a common written language was needed. Among the many words which received a single written version was the word 'lond' which became 'land', although this took a long time to settle ("The Adventure of English", Melvyn Bragg, 2003, pag.98). Clearly, a significant proportion of the English still used 'lond' instead of the modern 'land'. I have no further details about this, but it is likely that 'lond' was the local, Londinium version of 'land' since before the Roman conquest.

London is an argument which strongly supports my theory that English was never imported. (see summary)