Buscás
A Coruña · La CoruñaGalicia
Toponym of disputed origin. The two competing readings are an anthroponymic one —from the Gothic anthroponym Buscas or Boscas, in plural genitive, possibly with the Germanic base busk- ('forest, grove')— and a toponymic one that appeals to late Latin buscus (medieval variant of boscus, 'forest') with substantivised plural suffix.
The Germanic base busk-, 'forest, shrub', is documented in peninsular Visigothic and Suevic anthroponymy and gave modern German Busch and English bush. In Galician toponymy it appears in some toponyms as a possessive anthroponym: a Gothic lord called Buscas or Boscas would have given his name to the hamlet, following the habitual pattern of possessive toponymy in the Christian repopulation. The alternative toponymic reading appeals to late Latin buscus, a medieval variant of boscus ('forest') that late Latin adopted from the Germanic —a documented lexical loanword in western European medieval charters. The substantivised plural would describe a wooded place. The hamlet belongs to the Oroso council and sits at the crossing of rural roads between Hospital de Bruma and Sigüeiro. The parish church of San Paio, Romanesque reformed in the Baroque, marks the hamlet. The Inglés pilgrim crosses it on the penultimate stage before Santiago.
Evolution of the name
- Buscas / boscus Gothic / late Latin 6th — 9th centuries
- Buscás medieval Galician from the 12th century
Glossary
- Anthroponym
- A personal name, often used as the base of toponyms (Lucronius → Logroño, Sigerici → Castrojeriz, Sacavus → Sacavém).
- Onomastics
- The linguistic discipline that studies proper names — of persons, places and institutions. "Onomastic readings" are competing etymological hypotheses about a name.
- Repopulation
- A medieval process by which the Christian kingdoms of the northern Iberian peninsula resettled territories reconquered from al-Andalus. Generates a whole layer of repopulation toponyms: Bercianos (those from El Bierzo), Navarrete (little Navarre), Castellanos, Gallegos.
- Substantivised plural
- A device by which an adjective or noun in the plural is fixed as a place name without the noun that governed it: fontanas = "[lands of the] springs", ferreiros = "[place of the] smiths". Frequent in medieval repopulation.
Sources
- Navaza, G. — Toponimia de Galicia
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Camino Inglés