Werder (landscape)
The Werder (more rarely also the Werder ), also called Werth , is a topographical name for river islands and (less often) for islands in stagnant waters. Werder also refers to land that is diked or drained from swamp and reclaimed as a moorland . In regional names there are similar forms such as -werth , -wörth , -ward .
etymology
The word has been proven to mean "river island" since the 8th century. The Old High German form was uuerid . The underlying West Germanic word for “river island” can have been masculine ( waruþa- ) or neuter ( waruþaz ). In Old English it was waro „(“ beach ”,“ shore ”).
It is unclear from which lexical core the designation is derived. The verb is considered the one hand, defend , Old High German werien , Old Norse verja , gothic warjan , (ur) Germanic might -was ija- . A relationship with the Old Norse ver and the Old English waer is also possible, both used for “sea” and “land by the water”.
variants
The Werder part of the name has different regional variants:
- The form Werder itself can be found in the north and east of Germany from the Lower Weser over the Elbe to the area of the medieval Teutonic Order state along the Baltic Sea: Bodenwerder , Stadtwerder in Bremen , Werder an der Havel , Danziger Werder (also Little Werder), Elbingsches Werder , Great Marienburger Werder (also Great Werder , the latter three in the Vistula Delta ), Vorsfelder Werder and also in the Hamburg districts of Altenwerder , Billwerder , Finkenwerder , Kirchwerder , Ochsenwerder , Steinwerder .
- Regarding Werder as the name of places and islands, see Werder and the List of German Inland Islands and List of German Islands
- For Werder as a name of origin, see Werder (family name)
- Werth, Wert, Werd , Ward, Warder on the Lower and Middle Rhine common for inland islands, cf. Emmericher Ward . In place names such as Werth (Münsterland) , Essen-Werden , Kaiserswerth , Beeckerwerth , also on the Main ( Wertheim )
- Werda in Saxony and Lusatia , cf. Elsterwerda , Bad Liebenwerda
- Werther , Central German
- Ward in the Frisian-speaking area such as Fedderwarden , Fedderwardergroden , Fedderwardersiel
-
Wörth in the Upper German- speaking area with the Upper Rhine and Danube , as in Wörthspitze near Frankfurt, Donauwörth , Wörthersee , Wörth am Rheinfall, Wörthsee . Less common orthographic variants:
- Wö (h) rd , such as the Nuremberg district of Wöhrd
- Werd , such as Unterer Werd (original name of Brigittenau an der Donau near Vienna), the island of Werd in Lake Constance near Stein am Rhein , etc. a.
In addition, in the Dutch-speaking area:
- waard , both as an independent term for “flat landscape in a river area” and as part of the name: Polder Markerwaard , numerous mostly former islands on Waal , Neder Rijn , Lek and IJssel , e.g. B. the Kleefse Waard in Arnhem
The English -worth , on the other hand, is related to Terp / Wurt '[artificial] hill'.
Special feature: -wärder
For Hamburg there were up to the Greater Hamburg Act nor the part of word -wärder as a special feature.
There, the Elbe islands, if they were identified as such with this name, were written with a umlaut (ä) - for example Steinwärder and Finkenwärder . The latter was divided into two parts until 1937, into a northern Hamburg and a southern Prussian part (the province of Hanover ). In the Hamburg school atlases , the northern part of the island was therefore called Finkenwärder, the southern part Finkenwerder.
Demarcations and comparisons
Islands
The part of the name Werder refers to islands in rivers and estuaries, sometimes also lakes.
- Islands in the open sea will contrast with derivatives of the word tribe eye signified -oog , -ey , Oie ( Langeoog , Norderney , Greifswald Oie ).
- In the southwest German Alemannic language area, where river islands are mostly called -wörth , islands in lakes are predominantly -au
- in Lake Constance Lindau , Mainau , Mettnau and Reichenau ,
- in Lake Zurich Ufenau and Lützelau .
Elevated living spaces
The part of the name -warden or -warder could, in contrast to “Werder”, rather go back to Terft / Wurt and thus to throw in the sense of “pour up”, since it occurs almost only in marsh lands with terps .
Other names for elevated living spaces are Low German Bulte , North and Central German Horst (corresponding to the nest of large birds), Donk on the Lower Rhine as in the Dutch- speaking area.
Individual evidence
- ^ German dictionary by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Article "Werder"
- ↑ Explanation of terms waard in the Dutch Wikipedia
- ^ German dictionary by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Article "Wurt"