News tagged with lutetia

Coordinates: 48°51′N 2°21′E / 48.85°N 2.35°E / 48.85; 2.35

Lutetia (also Lutetia Parisiorum in Latin, Lukotekia before, in French Lutèce) was a town in pre-Roman and Roman Gaul. The Gallo-Roman city was a forerunner of the re-established Merovingian town that is the ancestor of present-day Paris. Lutetia and Paris have little in common save their position where an island, the Île de la Cité, created a convenient ford of the Seine.

The primitive Λουκοτοκία (Strabon), Λευκοτεκία (Ptolemeus), Lutetia (Caesar) maybe contain the Celtic root *luco-t- 'mouse' + -ek(t)ia = 'the mice', Breton logod, Welsh llygod, Irish luch (cf. Bibracte, *bibro 'beaver' + -acti = 'the beavers') or another Celtic root luto-, luteuo- 'marsh', 'swamp' (Gaelic loth 'marsh', Breton loudour 'dirty') like in Lutudarum (Derbyshire, England); Lodève (Luteua); Ludesse (France); Lutitia (Germany), etc.