Boiro

Camino de Barbanza

A Coruña · La CoruñaGalicia

Of unresolved origin. The Real Academia Galega's own Seminar on Onomastics calls it an 'enigma': several hypotheses circulate —⁠a budetum 'reed-bed', a pre-Roman root, a Suevic settlement⁠— and none has been proven.

It is one of the few names best left open. The Galician Academy's own specialists call Boiro an 'enigma': several explanations have been proposed without any of them closing. Some tie it to mist; others to the Latin budetum, 'reed-bed, waterlogged meadow', which would fit the marshes of the ría; others to the buri, a Suevic people said to have settled here; and there is no shortage of the folk etymology bo-ouro, 'good gold', as pretty as it is unreliable. The linguist Ana Boullón reviews the hypotheses without settling on any. We prefer to say it plainly: the name of Boiro remains undeciphered.

Evolution of the name

  1. (formas antiguas insuficientemente documentadas) pre-Roman (?)

Reflections, to the letter

With Boiro one must be honest: no one knows where the name comes from. The Galician Academy itself calls it an 'enigma'. From the waterlogged reed-bed, the Latin budetum? From a Suevic people, the buri? From the 'good gold' of folk etymology? None has been proven. You enter through Cespón, between marsh and ría, a landscape that fits the reed-bed hypothesis without confirming it. There are place names that still keep their secret, and this is one.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

unknown

Sources

  • Seminario de Onomástica da Real Academia Galega (Ana Boullón) — «Boiro» (Toponimia de Galicia, Xunta de Galicia)

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Camino de Barbanza

  1. Padrón
  2. Dodro
  3. Rianxo
  4. Boiro
  5. A Pobra do Caramiñal
  6. Ribeira