Définition :   lieu d'Angleterre, comté de Nottinghamshire. Ancien établissement romain Vernemetum, sur la Fosse Way, entre Ratae / Leicester au sud et Margidunum / Castle Hill au nord, en direction de Lindum / Lincoln.

Histoire : 

Étymologie :

* Rivet & Smith, p. 495 :

A. Vernemetum : 

* Rivet & Smith, p. 495 : 

SOURCES

- AI 477₅ (Iter VI) : VEROMETO

- AI 479₂ (Iter VIII) : VERNEMETO 

- Ravenna 106₄₅ (= R&C 87) : VERATINO

The entry in Ravenna has not previously been associated with AI's. But its eight letters correspond to the short form of the name in Iter VI, and if the latter figured on a map resembling TP and was read from that by the Cosmographer, there is no problem. The Cosmographer's eye was following road-stations in the Midlands in this section, but as usual, not in any wholly logical way; all the adjacent names can be identified with confidence, and it is natural that Vernemetum, otherwise omitted from Ravenna, should be mentioned here. There is no difficulty in supposing textual corruption at an early stage.

DERIVATION. For the prefix *uer-, see VERLUCIO; for nemeton, see AQUAE ARNEMETIAE. The sense in British is thus 'very sacred grove' or 'great sacred grove'; but the reference may be to a construction (shrine or temple), since in Venantius Fortunatus I, 9, a Gaulish Vernemetis is glossed ' fanum ingens ' (site unknown : near Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, France). There are several other Gaulish names of precisely this form, including a Vernemetas on Merovingian coins > Vernantes (Maine-et-Loire, France) ; see RIO, XIV (1962), 179, DAG 477-78. Whatmough thinks that Augustonemetum (now Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme, France) is probably a translation or renaming of another Vernemetum, and the same may be true of Lucus Augusti (Tacitus Hist. I, 66) > Luc-en-Diois (Drôme, France).

IDENTIFICATION. The Roman settlement near Willoughby on the Wolds, Nottinghamshire (SK 6425).

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B. Willoughby on the Wolds : 

- Eilert Ekwall (1936-1980) : "Wilgebi DB, Wilwebi 12 DC, Wilughby super Waldas 1363 BM. 'By among willows'. 

- A.D Mills (1981) : "usually 'farmstead by the willows-trees'; OE *wilig + Oscand. by. although some may be 'circle of willow-trees', OE *wilig + beag".

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Note JC Even : le mot anglais Wold(s) dérive d'un Vieil Anglais (OE) wald = bois.