River Thames

:This article is about the River Thames in southern England. For other meanings of the word Thames, see Thames (disambiguation)

Name origin

The discrepancy between the spelling and the pronunciation is due to the Renaissance belief that the name comes from Ancient Greek, being a derivative of the Greek River name Thyamis, in Epirus, from whence early Celtic tribes are thought to have migrated from. According to this belief, the spelling was changed from the original Middle English Temese ("t" was replaced by "th" which stands for Greek Θ). However, most scholars now believe Temese does not come from Ancient Greek, but from Latin Tamesis, which itself comes from Celtic (Brythonic) Tamesa, perhaps meaning "the dark one".

Related Topics:
Ancient Greek - Middle English - Θ - Latin - Celtic - Brythonic

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