Comillas
Cantabria
From the Latin cumulus 'hill, mound' in plural diminutive: 'the small hills'. The toponym describes the local geography —the town rises among three small coastal elevations—. Documented since the 11th century.
Evolution of the name
- Cumulellas late Latin 6th — 9th century
- Comilias / Comillas medieval Castilian from the 11th century
Reflections, to the letter
Comillas spreads across the three hills that name it: from Latin cumulus, 'mound', in the plural. On the highest, La Cardosa, stands Domènech i Montaner's Pontifical University; on the next, the Sobrellano palace. Climbing from one to another reads the place-name with your legs: the little mounds that christened the town are the same ones the marquises crowned with stone.
Glossary
- Diminutive
- A derived form indicating smaller size or affection, formed with suffixes such as -illo, -ito, -uelo, -ete. Substantivised plural diminutives abound in toponymy: Hornillos, Boadilla, Calzadilla, Comillas, Pradillos.
- Etymology
- The origin and history of a word and the phonetic and semantic changes it has undergone. An etymology may be confirmed, probable or disputed depending on documentary attestations and linguistic parallels.
- Indiano
- An emigrant who returned enriched from the Americas (especially Cuba and Mexico) during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many indianos invested their fortunes in architectural patronage in their hometowns — the Marquis of Comillas is the paradigmatic case.
- Plural diminutive
- A toponymic device by which a noun is fixed as a place name in plural and with a diminutive suffix. Frequent in the medieval Castilian-Leonese repopulation: Hornillos, Boadilla, Calzadilla, Comillas.
- 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
- González Echegaray, J. — Comillas: una villa peculiar
- Bassegoda Nonell, J. — El Capricho de Gaudí en Comillas
- Corominas, J. & Pascual, J.A. — Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico
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Camino del Norte