Étymologie.

* Eilert Ekwall : ( Londinium 115-17 Tacitus, 4 IA, Londinion c 150 Ptolemy, Lundin(i)um Ammianus Marcellinus, Lundonia c 730 Bede, Lundenburg 457 ff. ASC, (on) Lundenne 839, (on) Lundene 962 ASC, (in) Lundenne, Lundenceaster c 890 OEBede, Lundres 12 Fantosme, Lundin 1205 Lay]. Londinium is no doubt a derivative of a stem *londo- 'wild, bold', found in Olr lond 'wild'. The immediate base may be a pers. n. Londinos or a tribal name formed from the adjective. London Bridge is (œt) Lundene brigce 10 BCS 1131.

* E. Ekwall : Londinium est sans doute un dérivé de Lundo- : 'sauvage', 'hardi' que l'on trouve en ancien irlandais lond = sauvage. L'idée de base première peut être un nom de personne Londinos ou un nom de tribu formé à partir de cet adjectif.

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* Rivet & Smith, p. 396,97,98

- Ptolémée, I,15,7 : Londiniou ( = LONDINII) c 150;

- Ptolémée, II,3,12 & WIII,3,6 : Londinion, ( = LONDINIUM), ville des Cantii. (voir note infra)

- Itinéraire d'Antonin, 471₅ (Iter II) : LONDINIO, 115-117;

- Itinéraire d'Antonin, 477,₁₀ (Iter VII) & 479,10 & 480,8 : LUNDINIO; 

- Ravenne, 106₅₀ : LONDINIUM AUGUSTI; 

- Ravenne, 106₅₀ : LANDINI;

- Ammien Marcellin, XXVII, 8,7 : ad LUNDIN(I)UM, vetus oppidum qod Augustam posteritas appellavit; 

- Ammien Marcellin, XXVII,3,7 : ab AUGUSTA profectus quam veteres appellavere Lundinium

- Panégyrique VIII,17,1 : OPPIDUM LONDINIENSE; 

- Notitia Dignitatum XI,37 : Praepositus thesaurum AUGUSTENSIUM (in Britannis).

- Stéphane de Byzance, citant Marcien : Lindonion ( = LINDONIUM)

- Bede : Lundonia, c 730; 

- ASC : Lundenburg, 457;

- Lettre du Pape Grégoire à St Augustin de Canterbury : Lundoniae civitatis (cf Bède, I,29)

The sources present no problem. It seems obvious to take Ravenna's Landini (read from a map) as a duplication of Londinium, as was first proposed by Parthey and Pinder in their edition of 1860, with a for o as often; we may dismiss Stevens's attempt to relate to it Lindinis, and that of R&C to find a place for it 'south of the Thames, on a road leading northwards from Silchester' (with etymology based on Celtic *landa). Sec also AUGUSTA¹.

DERIVATION. The sources show that the standard Latin form was Londinium, guaranteed by the inscriptions. It was a neuter, as shown by Tacitus's adjectives insigne, celebre. The sources show three cases in use and two, perhaps three different adjectival forms.

Stephanus's form with Lind- is probably a simple miscopying, which stemmed from Marcian; but it does perhaps show that in sixth-century Byzantium direct knowledge of the British city was too weak to produce a correction to the proper form. The records of Lund- are another matter. Those in AI 477₁₀, 479₁₀ and 480₈ might result from miscopying of Lond- or might show that material for the itinera in question was collected or corrected at a late stage, a stage certainly recorded in the late fourth century by Ammianus with his reiterated Lundinium, To judge from Anglo-Saxon Lundene, the late Romano-British spoken form was indeed Lundinium, this u developing from earlier Romano-British o as it did also in the better-recorded Vulgar Latin of Gaul in some situations. Whether this name with u was taken into Anglo-Saxon speech from the Vulgar Latin pronunciation of the inhabitants, as Zachrisson proposed (p. 80), or from British speakers who also pronounced the name with u, as Jackson prefers (LHEB 258, etc.) cannot be resolved, but it is a reasonable supposition that in London more than in most places towards the east of the country some Latin speech would have survived into early Anglo-Saxon times.

Bede's forms regularly show Lundonia (II, 3; IV, 6; IV, 12; , IV, 22; with adjectival Lundoniensis, I, 29, and Lundonienses 'Londoners ', II, 6, etc.). The fact that he makes the city feminine shows that he is following (as with Cantia, Eburaca, and perhaps others) forms probably brought from Rome by Augustine in 597, or that in the letter of Pope Gregory to Augustine in 601 (Lundoniae civitatis, gen. ; Bede I, 29).

The British etymon is unsure. For long it was customary to give it as 'town of *Londinos', a personal name based on *londo- 'fierce'; but this had o, and is to be dismissed (LHEB 308, note). Jackson in Britannia, I (1970), 76, prefers to make no guesses. Various roots known in Ligurian have been proposed, for example by J.-G. Gigot in RIO, XXVI (1974), 284-92, but they are unconvincing and have no known cognates in British. There seems to be only one analogue, Londibris (= Londobris), Ptolemy II, 5, 7, now Berlanga island off Portugal, a name which presumably has as its second element -bris for -brix, -briga (compare Ptolemy's Kaitobris = Caetobrix for Cetobriga, II, 5,2). Gigot's three names in Hérault, France, e.g. Saint-Martin-de-Londres, and that of the river Soulondres, are of no value; they are not recorded until 1507, and may go back to an English charter of 1327-63, hence representing the name of Londres taken from England.

In the name of London, the suffix regularly recorded as -inium poses a problem. The form to be expected is -onium, British *-onion, and Jackson (LHEB 308, note) thinks that *-onion was indeed the form heard by Anglo-Saxons. One might suggest that -inium early (and wrongly, in a way) became established in Latin usage by dissimilation of o-o to o-i, or alternatively, by assimilation of the stressed vowel to the i of the ending. (It is not quite correct to say, as Jackson does in Britannia, I (1970), 76, that 'there is some support for *-onion in Greek and Latin sources, including the AI itself'; in the Cuntz text, there is no trace of this in the main text nor among variants, and in Greek only the late Stephanus, citing Marcian, has -don-.)

IDENTIFICATION. The Roman city of London (TQ 3281). Ptolemy's attribution of it to the Cantii is plainly an error, since apart from the suburb of Southwark, which developed later, it lay wholly north of the river. See also AUGUSTA¹.

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* J.W  Lake : L'étymologie du nom de Londres a été souvent le sujet de nombreuses discussions sans qu'on ait pu parvenir à une conclusion certaine. L'opinion la plus accréditée et la plus probable est que ce nom est dérivé du breton Llyn-din, qui signifie 'ville ou fort sur le lac' lyn étant un mot celtique qui veut dire étendue d'eau. ... Selon Tacite, les Romains l'appelaient Londinium et Colonia Augusta. Ammien Marcellin, qui vivait sous Julien l'Apostat, en fait mention comme d'une ville ancienne, appelée autrefois Lundinium, et Augusta au moment où il écrivait. Le même auteur la nomme Augusta Trinobantum, comme étant la capitale des Trinobantes, peuple des comtés d'Essex et de Middlessex. Le Vénérable Bède lui donne le nom de Londinia; enfin, les Saxons lui appliquèrent différentes dénominations, telles que Lunden-ceaster, Lunden-berig, Lunden-wic. 

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* G. Guibillon (1935) : "The name of London os generally derived from the Celtic Llyndyn ("stronghold by the marsh"), and it is to be surmised that the first London was a Celtic hamlet, built on the east side of a little stram, the Fleet, which ran et the foot of Ludgate Hill". 

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* ALF Rivet & C. Smith, pour Augusta : 

DERIVATION. Ammianus's form is the correct one; Ravenna's a slight misunderstanding. This is an honorific Latin title awarded to London and evidently used in official parlance and as a by-name. ND has the adjectival form. The name was not remembered in post-Imperial times. It is not known when the title was conferred. It has been suggested by Richmond (followed by Frere) that the city was known as Caesarea when made capital of the province of Flavia Caesariensis or that called Maxima Caesariensis, and then became Augusta on the occasion of the visit of Constantius in A.D. 306.

IDENTIFICATION. The Roman city of London (TQ 3281).

*****

JCE : Londres n'est pas aux Cantii, mais aux Trinov(b)antes.

JC. Even : compte tenu de la morphologie de la géographie locale à l'époque de la construction du camp d'Aulus Plautius, la Tamesa / Tamise formant en cet endroit une boucle large, je pense qu'il y a lieu de se rattacher à l'idée d'un "camp bâti près du plan d'eau"= llyn (lac; plan d'eau) + dun ( camp; forteresse).

Sources; Bibliographie : 

* G. Guibillon : Bitannia. A description of the home life and social activities of the British People. Librairie A. Hatier. 1935.

* ALF Rivet & C. Smith : The Place-names of Roman Britain. Batsford Ltd. 1979/1982.

* Eilert Ekwall : English Place-names.

* Ministère de l'Environnement et le Central office of Information. 1975.

- envoi du Museum of London; 19.09.1983

- Peter MARSDEN : Roman London. Thames & Hudson Ltd. London. 1980 

Liens électroniques des sites Internet traitant de Londres / London / Ker-Londrez / Londinium :  

* lien communal officiel : 

Autres sites Internet :  Ceux-ci sont très nombreux. Utiliser votre moteur de recherche.

Pour Londres antique : 

http://www.roman-britain.org/places/londinium.htm

Pour Londres médiévale, classique et moderne : 

- Abbaye de Westminster : Dean's Yard, SW1. 020 7222 5152.7110; http://www.westminster-abbey.org

- Buckingham Palace : www.royal.gov.uk

* dessin du blason de Londres par JC Even sur logiciel geneheral5.

* forum du site Marikavel : Academia Celtica

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