Degree (place name)

Degree , -grad is a common Slavic educational syllable in place names and refers to Slavic fortified settlements .

Word origin and meaning

The Old Church Slavic word grad , common to all Slavic languages , reconstructed in original Slavic for example * gordъ , means ' castle , city '. Originally it generally referred to an enclosed area. The root of the word is older and comes from the Indo-European original language. There is a relationship with German garden and Latin hortus (originally ' fenced in area', cf. German Hof , English yard 'Hof' and to guard 'protect').

The diminutive form is gradec [ ˈgradɛts ], meaning 'fortified mansion, place, small castle'. This word is in the Slavic-Germanic transition area in forms such as German Gratz, Grätz in surnames still occurring component (see Grätz (family name) ), and in the reduced ending to -z / -tz in the German place name treasure .

In the West Slavic dialects of today's north-east Germany and Pomerania, the shift of the r no longer took place before they became extinct, so the form Gard was retained, e.g. B. at Stargard , Gartz or Puttgarden on Fehmarn.