Friday, August 19, 2011

Mundmafranskirsuber (Montmorency cherry)

The Montmorency cherry, a well-known variety of the sour cherry was named after the commune of Montmorency in the northern suburbs of Paris. It was the fief of the distinguished Montmorency family (Mundmafrensingar, from Mundmafrans). The name Montmorency derives from "Mons Maurentiacus" (993), which literally means "Mount Maurentiacus". Maurentiacus,in its turn, means "estate of Maurentius", which, except for the initial consonant, sound identical to "Laurentius", which was icelandicized as Lafrans (Lafransmessa). For that reason I propose the form 'Mafrans' for Maurentius. The prefix Mont- in Romance toponyms can be icelandicized as Mund-, like e.g. Mundíafjöll, Mons Jovis, mountains of Jupiter, the Alps), so I propose the constructions: Mafrans for 'Maurentius',analoguous to Lafrans for Laurentius, Mundmafrans for the name of the commune Montmorency, Mundmafrensingar or Mundmafransætt for the Montmorency family and Mundmafranskirsuber for the Montmorency cherry.

No comments: