Tiebas
Comunidad Foral de Navarra
Toponym of disputed etymology. The hypothesis with most support —Mitxelena, Salaberri— derives it from old Basque teba or tepa ('low hill, knoll, gently elevated terrain') with the Romance plural suffix -as, designating the gentle elevations on which the nucleus sits. The medieval form Thebas suggests a pronunciation with initial aspiration that Navarrese Romance lost.
Evolution of the name
- *teba Basque pre-Roman before the 9th century
- Thebas / Tiebas Navarrese Romance from the 12th century
Reflections, to the letter
Tiebas comes from the Basque teba, 'a low hill, a gently raised rise,' and the whole village makes sense from that barely perceptible height. The castle rose here for a reason: the rise commands the natural pass into the south of the Pamplona basin, and from its ruins, on a clear day, the eye follows the Perdón to the northwest and the first ranges of the basin. The slight elevation a walker scarcely notices is why a fortress stood here, and why the place bears its name.
Glossary
- Chamber of Accounts
- Medieval administrative institution of the Kingdom of Navarre created in 1364 by Charles II, with a function equivalent to today's Court of Audit: registration and fiscal supervision of royal revenues. The Comptos archive was first preserved in the castle of Tiebas and, after the fire of 1378, in the eponymous chamber of the royal palace of Pamplona. The Chamber of Accounts remains active as a fiscal oversight institution of the Foral Community.
- 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.
Sources
- García-Gómez, R. — El castillo de Tiebas
- Mitxelena, K. — Apellidos vascos
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Camino Aragonés