Zariquiegui
NavarraNavarra
Descriptive Basque toponym: zarika ('willow', a word of old Basque) + the locative suffix -egi ('place of'). It means 'willow grove, place of willows', an exact description of the bank of the river Robo where the village sits, on the southern slope of the Sierra del Perdón.
Zarika is the Basque word for willow —the riverside tree par excellence, associated with water and humidity—, present in dozens of toponyms of the Basque Country and Navarre: Zarikiegi, Zarikatxiki, Zarikiain. The suffix -egi, a variant of -tegi, is one of the most productive in Basque for forming names of places abundant in something —the functional equivalent of Latin -etum—. The original willow grove that gave the village its name has shrunk over the centuries, but the river Robo still preserves its tree-lined bank. Zariquiegui is the last stop before the high of the Perdón pass, a symbolic point of the Camino with Vicente Galbete's iron monument to the pilgrims.
Evolution of the name
- zarika + -egi Basque before the 12th century
- Çaraquegi / Zariquiegui Basque-Castilian from the 13th century
Glossary
- Locative suffix
- A Castilian ending marking "place of" or "workshop where X is worked": -ería (panadería, herrería), -ero/-era (barquera, Itero "place of the road"). From the Latin -arium.
- Onomastics
- The linguistic discipline that studies proper names — of persons, places and institutions. "Onomastic readings" are competing etymological hypotheses about a name.
- Suffix -egi / -tegi
- A Basque locative suffix indicating place of abundance or place where something is done: haritzegi (oak grove), artxitegi (place of sheep), ogitegi (bakery). Functional equivalent of Latin -etum.
Sources
- Salaberri Zaratiegi, P. — Toponimia de Navarra
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Camino Francés