Thames
/tɛmz/ proper noun
- proper noun (with the) A river in southern England, flowing 336 km (209 mi.) from Gloucestershire, through Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Greater London, and between Essex and Kent to the Thames Estuary and North Sea.
- proper noun A sea area centred on the Thames Estuary.
- proper noun (with the) A river in Ontario, Canada, flowing 258 km (160 mi.) to Lake St. Clair.
- proper noun (with the) A river in the U.S. State of Connecticut flowing 24 km (15 mi.) past New London to Long Island Sound.
- proper noun A town in Thames-Coromandel district, Waikato, New Zealand, situated on the Firth of Thames (a large bay) and the Coromandel Peninsula.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English Temse, Temese, from Old English Temes, Temese (compare Welsh Tafwys), from Latin Tamesis, Tamesas. Variant spellings with h arose in Middle English due to the mistaken assumption of a Greek etymology. The modern spelling with a stems from either the East Saxon dialects of Middle English and Old English or the influence of Tamesis.
The Latin name is from Proto-Brythonic *Tamesis, from Proto-Celtic *tamesās (“river, waters”, literally “darkness”), a masculine ā-stem of *tames, Proto-Indo-European *tm̥Hes-, zero-grade of *témHes-, *témHos- (“darkness”), an s-stem from the root *temH- (“dark”). Related to Proto-Celtic *temeslos (“darkness”), *temos (“dark”). A parallel in Proto-Celtic of "dark, darkness" taking on the figurative meaning of "water" can also be found in Proto-Celtic *dubros (“water, dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰubrós (“dark”), yielding Welsh dŵr (“water”), Irish dobhar (“water, sea, dark, gloomy”). Hydronyms with their origin in this term also occur elsewhere in Europe, for example Portugal's Douro.
Alternatively from Proto-Celtic *tā-, *tāyo- (“to melt, flow”), from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂- (“to melt”), or from unknown non-Indo-European root.
Possible cognates include the names of rivers and tributaries such as:
* Taff, Tamar (from Latin Tamarus), Tame, Tavy, Team, Teifi (from Welsh Teifi, from Old Welsh Tebi, Teibi), Teme, and Teviot (Latin Tefius, Teifius) in Great Britain
* Tambre (from Latin Tamaris), Támega (in Galician, Portuguese Tâmega, Latin Tamice), Támoga or Támboga (Latin Tamega), and Tamuxe, all of them flowing through Galicia (Spain) and northern Portugal
* Tamaran in France
* Tammaro (from Latin Tamarus) in Italy
* Demer in Belgium
* Tamyras in Phoenicia
* Tons, Tamasa (from Sanskrit तमसा (tamasā)) in India
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Thames”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details