Outes

A Serra de Outes

Camino de Muros y Noia

A Coruña · La CoruñaGalicia

From the Galician outo 'high' (from the Latin altus), the same family as outeiro, 'hillock': 'the heights', after the coastal high ground where A Serra de Outes sits.

The name looks down from above. Outes reads as 'the heights', from the Galician outo, 'high', which comes from the Latin altus with the regular diphthongisation of al- before a consonant (the same that gives outeiro, the hillock, or outono, autumn). The capital, A Serra de Outes, sits high above the head of the ría, and the district holds a good dozen castros, those Iron-Age settlements that sought precisely the high ground: the landscape confirms the name. A pre-Roman reading also circulates, tying Outes to an old people's name, but it is undocumented; we keep the height, which is in plain sight.

Evolution of the name

  1. altus Latin 'high'
  2. outo / outeiro Galician 'height'
  3. Outes Galician modern

Reflections, to the letter

Outes is 'the heights', from the Galician outo, 'high', child of the Latin altus —⁠cousin of outeiro, the hillock⁠—⁠. The capital sits high above the head of the ría, and around it are more than a dozen castros, which sought exactly that, the high ground. You climb through the name. Someone will tell you of a more mysterious pre-Roman origin; it is not proven, and the rise you tread explains the toponym without help.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

probable

Sources

  • Torres del Río, J. — estudio sobre la toponimia de Muros y Noia (El Correo Gallego, 21 ago 2020)
  • Turismo de Outes — «Breve historia de Outes»

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Camino de Muros y Noia

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