Brión

Camino de Muros y Noia

A Coruña · La CoruñaGalicia

From the Celtic *briga 'fortified height, hillfort', with loss of the intervocalic -g-: 'the fort'. Not from the Galician brión 'moss', which is a homonym.

The name is a hillfort. Brión goes back to the Celtic *briga, 'fortified height', the same element that closes dozens of Galician and peninsular place names —⁠from Coimbra to Segóbriga⁠— and which in the insular Celtic languages reappears as bruíon, 'palace, royal seat'. The loss of the -g- between vowels (briga > bria > Brión) is regular in Galician. It is worth ruling out the trap: there is a Galician brión meaning 'moss' —⁠from the Latin bryon, taken from Greek⁠— but it is a homonym, not the origin of the place. What lies under the name is defensive stone: the district holds the Castro Lupario of Bastavales, one of the best-preserved in the region, wrapped moreover in the Jacobean legend of Queen Lupa.

Evolution of the name

  1. *briga Celtic 'hillfort, fortified height'
  2. Brión Galician modern

Reflections, to the letter

Brión is 'the hillfort', from the Celtic *briga, 'fortified height' —⁠the same ending as Coimbra or Segóbriga⁠—⁠. Beware the trap: there is a Galician brión that means 'moss', but it is another word; the town is named for the stone, not the moss. Nearby is the Castro Lupario of Bastavales, one of the best in the area, and with it the legend of Queen Lupa that Jacobean tradition places right around here. You are in the Val da Maía, already scenting Santiago.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

probable

Sources

  • Concello de Brión — «Situación, historia e toponimia»
  • Nomenclátor de Galicia (Xunta de Galicia)

If you have a correction or an observation about this information,
please write to us through the form at the foot of the site.
We will grow more precise thanks to your contribution.

Camino de Muros y Noia

  1. Santiago de Compostela
  2. Ames
  3. Brión
  4. Noia
  5. Outes
  6. Muros