On the origin of toponym Rajgród

Abstract

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE TOPONYM RAJGRÓD The article focuses on the etymological analysis of the place-name Pol. Rajgród ‘a town in Grajewo County, Podlaskie Voivodeship’. It has been stated that the stronghold known as the “Castle Hill” in Rajgród was founded by Yotvingians. Referring to the etymological analysis of the West Germanic forms of the analysed onym and its variants, such as Rongart 1360 etc., the author of the article presents a new hypothesis concerning the origin of Pol. Rajgród. In summing up the research results, one may conclude that the toponym Pol. Rajgród is to be ascribed to adapted place-names of Germanic origin, i. e. (1) CS Раи1253 ← top. *Rain / *Rein (/ *Reyn) ‘a frontier’ ↔ top. MLG †Reyne 1292, 1293, 1489; (2) Raygrod 1244, Reygrod 1429 etc. (↔ Rajgród) ← *Reingarden / *Reingart(h) ‘a frontier area’; (3) Rongart 1360, Rogors 1422 etc. ← sub. MLG ronne(bôm) ‘a border pole, i.e. a frontier, a march’.

Keywords

• toponym
• hydronym
• Rajgród
• Yotvingians