Segovia
SegoviaCastilla y León
Celtiberian toponym attested from the 2nd century BC. The form Segouia appears on Celtiberian coins with legend in northeastern Iberian alphabet, in Pliny the Elder (III, 27) and Ptolemy (II, 6, 56). The most sustained etymology —Joaquín Gorrochategui, Carlos Jordán— derives it from the Celtic compound *sego-uia, 'place of victory' or 'strong city', from the root *segh- ('strength, victory, dominion') plus the suffix *-uia ('place'). Cognate with other Celtiberian toponyms in Sego-: Segeda, Segobriga, Segontia.
Evolution of the name
- *sego-uia common Celtic before the 3rd century BC
- Segouia Iberian / Latinized 2nd centuries BC–5th
- Segovia medieval Latin and Castilian from the 9th century
Reflections, to the letter
Step out to the Alcázar, on the rock prow where the Eresma and the Clamores almost meet: there, in stone, is the name. The Celtiberians called this crag *Segouia*, from a root meaning 'strength' and 'victory,' and the spur tells you why—cliff-cut flanks, a single front to defend, command over both valleys. The city grew on the rock that made it unassailable; the toponym merely gave voice to what the ground was already shouting.
Glossary
- Arevaci
- Celtiberian people of pre-Roman Hispania, cited by Pliny the Elder, Appian and Strabo as one of the four great Celtiberian ethnic groups (alongside Beli, Titi and Lusones). Their territory extended approximately between the current provinces of Soria, Segovia, Burgos and northern Guadalajara; Segovia, Numantia (Numancia) and Termes (Tiermes) were their main civitates. They minted coinage in the northeastern Iberian alphabet between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.
- Attested
- A form or word documented in writing in historical sources; opposed to "reconstructed" (forms proposed by comparative inference but not actually documented).
- 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.
- Indo-European
- A linguistic family encompassing Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Greek, Sanskrit, Persian and other languages. Basque is NOT Indo-European — it is a language isolate.
- Roman aqueduct of Segovia
- Roman hydraulic engineering work built between the reigns of Domitian and Trajan (1st–2nd centuries AD) to supply drinking water to the civitas of Segovia. It conducts the water of the Fuenfría spring from the Acebeda river over sixteen kilometres, the last 818 metres in granite arcading at double level: 167 semicircular arches on two storeys, assembled without mortar by the sheer precision of the cut. It remained in uninterrupted use for 1,900 years, until its retirement from service in 1973. UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.
Sources
- Gorrochategui, J. — Onomástica antigua de los Pirineos
- Jordán, C. — Celtibérico
- Plinio — Naturalis Historia, III, 27
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