Boborás

Camino Miñoto Ribeiro

Ourense · OrenseGalicia

Of unresolved etymology. The Real Academia Galega proposes recovering the form Aboborás, which would link it to abóbora, 'pumpkin/gourd' —⁠a place of gourd-fields⁠— but there is no firm etymon.

It is a name that still will not be read. The Real Academia Galega, revising the province's toponymy, proposed recovering the form Aboborás, which would relate the name to abóbora, the 'pumpkin/gourd' —⁠from a late Latin apopores⁠—⁠, and make it a plant-name, 'the place of the gourd-fields'. The key is that lost initial A-: if Boborás is an aphaeresis of Aboborás, the gourd would explain the name; if not, the origin sinks into the pre-Latin substrate, as Abelardo Moralejo suggested in citing it among the Celtic toponyms of Galicia. There is no consensus, and we prefer to say so: the name of Boborás remains unresolved. The municipality, however, keeps a jewel that needs no etymology: Pazos de Arenteiro, the ensemble of stone manors this Camino has just passed through.

Evolution of the name

  1. ¿Aboborás → Boborás? pre-Roman / Latin disputed aphaeresis
  2. Boborás Galician modern

Reflections, to the letter

Boborás is an unresolved name, and it is fair to admit it. The Galician Academy proposes recovering Aboborás and linking it to the abóbora, the gourd —⁠a gourd-field⁠—⁠; but it all depends on an initial A- perhaps lost, and some sink it into the pre-Latin substrate. No one has settled it. In the municipality remains, with no need of etymology, Pazos de Arenteiro, whose stone manors you have just passed. There are names that walk with you without quite telling you who they are.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

unknown

Sources

  • La Región — «El mapa de la provincia se actualiza con 430 topónimos renovados» (revisión RAG)
  • Moralejo Laso, A. — «Topónimos célticos en Galicia» (cita de Boborás en contexto prelatino)

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Camino Miñoto Ribeiro

  1. Santiago de Compostela
  2. Ponte Ulla
  3. Beariz
  4. Pazos de Arenteiro
  5. Boborás
  6. Leiro
  7. Beade
  8. Ribadavia
  9. Cortegada
  10. Lobios