Acceso usuarios
Jean-Pierre Chambon
The present contribution aims to give its etymology to a French toponym previously regarded as of unknown origin : Ternuay (Haute-Saône). A survey of the written testimonies and of the dialectal forms leads to posit that the word is built on *ternua, itself derived from Lat. ternūca, n. f. ‘wildrye (Elymus spp. L.)’, with the collective suffix *‑ei(o) from Lat. ‑ētu. This formation appears to be dated from the Merovingian era. It is reasonable, at any rate, to assess that the type ternūca, whose derivates are attested (only since the 16th century) in the West and the Center of the Oïl zone and in a part of Occitania, has been previously diffused in the East of Roman Gaul. Moreover, this article discusses some additional aspects of this toponym’s history.
