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Etymology of the place name Tourniol (Col de Tourniol)

I have extracted some information from the Dictionnaire Historique de la Langue Française (DHLF) which confirms that of the Grand Robert:

Torgnole (1761) is a graphic variant of torniole, tourniole (c. 1225) "circular movement, diversions" derived from the verb torniier, tornoüer, a variant (c. 1180) of tournoyer, which has remained in the dialects. To explain the graphic originality of torgnole, P. Guiraud invokes the attraction of trogne, trognon, but the oral passage from torniole to torgnole is natural and insensitive.

Tournoyer: "to describe curves without moving away". In concrete terms, it meant "to make a diversion" (v. 1180).

This body of information is confirmed in Jacqueline Picoche's Dictionnaire Etymologique du Français (which uses an original method consisting of starting complex articles with words of popular formation and taking the simplest popular word in the whole family, which is often the oldest, as the entry for the article. That's how you'll find téléphone under antienne, cycliste under quenouille and cyclotourisme under tourner).

Does the fact that there is now a departmental road which, with its series of twists and turns under the pass, might suggest the idea of twirling, justify the etymology of the place name "Tourniol" being derived from these words (torgnole, tournoyer, tourner)?

Nothing is less certain, in fact the naming of places is extremely old, it is the work of the first inhabitants (some millennia ago) and was transmitted orally from century to century to be collected (and possibly recorded in documents) between the 9th and 11th centuries (at best). It is generally a common name describing a physical feature of the landscape with a sensitivity that has now completely disappeared from our language (but which may have been better preserved in a dialect). This toponym will then evolve into a proper noun of which we will generally have lost all idea of the precise meaning originally given.

Here is the opinion of a few oronymy specialists:

  • According to Alain Nouvel, the root °tur found in Chamito-Semitic, Ural-Altaic, Dravidian, Indo-European, etc. explains the forms tur-, tor-, tour-. This root evokes the idea of height. The root TUR-N- ("height") may be an extension of the Celtic root °tur, found in Tournon (Ard.), Tournes (Ard., P. de C.), Thorn (Roman road from Maastricht to Nimegue). In Old French we find turel, tureau, thurel, turet, toron, tolon, etc. in the sense of hill, eminence.
  • According to André Compan, Thor-, Thoron- and Terron have a pre-indo-European root: °tor-, more or less elongated or rectilinear height, cf. cime de Tor (2151 m massif de l'Aution), pointe de Tor (Gesso and Roya). The word tor is always used in Provençal to designate a mound, an eminence (Mistral, TDF), e.g. Le Thor (Vaucluse), Thoron and Terron are two derived forms. Also: Thorenc (c. Andon), Le Thoronet, a hillock 865 m N-W of Gourdon with a pre-Roman enclosure, Tournon, c. Montauroux, known for the Roman oppidum of Collet Redoun, etc.
  • Finally, Ch. Rostaing links Tournoux (Ubaye) and Tournefort (Tinée valley) to this root.

The suffix -ol is considered to be a diminutive.

It would obviously be interesting to consult the old land registers for the communes of Chaffal, Barbières, St Vincent, Peyrus, etc. It would obviously be interesting to consult the old land registers of the communes of Chaffal, Barbières, St Vincent, Peyrus, etc., and the cartularies, charters and registers, which are plentiful in this region due to the presence of the Abbey of Léoncel, to find out how the place name evolved into the Tourniol of today.

I don't have the time at present, but I consulted my collection of the Cahiers de Léoncel and found this (volume 6, p. 94): In 1213, Ponce de Mirabel gave "in puram helemosinam quicquid juris habebat a balma Sancti Romani usque ad collum de Tornym", which means "in pure alms (i.e. without consideration), all the rights he possessed from the baume de Saint-Roman to the col de Tourniol". The Torn root is therefore attested to as early as the 13th century, confirming the hypothesis put forward in view of the arguments provided by the best toponymy specialists.

It's probably not as pretty as the turnstiles, but it's more likely.

Michel de Brébisson - Nov. 15, 2000
[email]michel.debrebisson@libertysurf.fr[/email]