How are the city name etymologies of Paris, Milan, Zurich, and Vienna related to each other? If you said they’re all places in Europe, you’d be right, but there’s actually is another connection between them! They all derive from words in the ancient Continental Celtic language of Gaulish, spoken in ancient France and Italy. When you think of the Celtic languages, you may think of the insular Celtic languages such as Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Breton, or Cornish, but there was another ancient branch called the Continental Celtic languages that stretched across Europe! They’re all extinct now, but they have left their mark on the city name etymologies of numerous places in Europe…
Here’s a map of the approximant locations of the Celtic languages:
Paris derives from the Latin Parīsiī, the name of a Celtic tribe derived from the Gaulish parios, meaning “Cauldron”
Milan derives from Latin Mediolānum, from the Gaulish medios meaning “middle” and lānom meaning “field”.
Zurich derives from the Latin Turicum, which comes from the Gaulish *Tūrīkon, from the Celtic name Tūros.
Vienna’s etymology is sort of conflicted, but a strong possibility is that it derives from the Celtic wēdus meaning “wild”.
Thanks for reading!