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Bulletin de l'Amicale des Cyclos Cardiaques N° 166Go to info

Commemorative gathering at the Alsace balloon: presentation and new articlesGo to info

Toponymy, another way of travelling

Toponymy: another way of seeing the geography of a country, another way of travelling. Just look up the origin of a particular place name and you'll discover that a rich history lies behind the crossroads, the hill or... the pass.

There are some very colourful and funny pass names:

  • col de CANTECOUYOUL (09-0565): in other words: col de Chante-Coucou and not Chante-Couillon as a Pyrenean told me at the top of this same col during a concentration of the Cent Cols...

My favourite is :

  • Col de PIQUOTALEN (81-1004), which means: the pass where you get hungry! Don't forget to pack enough food for the climb!

But of course, the names of most of the passes correspond to rural activities linked to agriculture. These names have been shaped over the centuries by generations of farmers who have also shaped the landscape.

There are many examples, including :

  • Col de la CAYOLLE (04-2327): from "Cayolla": chalet or shepherd's hut in the mountains (Provence). In the Pyrenees the mountain pastures are dotted with "cayollars", the origin is the same.
  • Col de GAUDISSART (26-0889a): Gaudissart: cleared wood in Old French
  • Col AGNEL (05-2744): from agnielle or agnière: area frequented by sheep, sheep pasture.
  • Col d'ARCES (74-1160): arces: ground cleared by fire. Gave : arcine (see 05-2348)
  • Col d'ARTIGAU (31-1382): artigau: meadow on the side of a mountain with a hut or barn for the cattle or the shepherd (central Pyrenees)
  • Col or Pas de L'AUP (05-1413, 05-1680, 74-1425a etc.): a very common term, synonymous with alpe (mountain pasture). A dozen or so names refer to the same thing (aupet, alpet, auet, aupas etc.). This very common name has also been used to designate the Alps themselves.
  • Col de la RAMAZ (74-1557): ramaz: enclosure where the herd is herded to the mountain pasture (Savoie) Etc....

Other names relate to natural data and are primarily descriptive:

  • Col de la SCHLUCHT (68-1139): schlucht: ravine, gorge, defile (Alsace).
  • Cormet de ROSELEND (73-1068): roselend: peat bog, place where reeds grow (Savoie).
  • Col d'AUZINES (11-0335a, 66-0606 etc...): auzines: holm oak wood (Aude)
  • Col de JOUX VERTE (74-1765): joux or jau: wooded mountain.
  • Col de l'ARENIER (07-0682): arénier: sandy ground, sand pit, strike.
  • Col de l'ESPIGOULIER (13-0722): espigoulier: land covered with lavender or uncultivated.
  • Col de la BUFFAZ (73-1439, 74-1500a): buffaz: storm, place exposed to the wind (Savoie).
  • Col de LESCHAUX (74-0897): leschaux: uncultivated soil above the forest (Savoie)
  • Col des GLIÈRES (74-1425b): glières: gravelly terrain (Thônes region 74).
  • Col du FAYET (07-0611): fayet: beech forest, see also: fage, faye etc...

The names of the passes evoking an industrial or craft activity are rarer:

  • Col de la GIPIÈRE de L'ORONAYE (04-2482): gipière: plaster stone quarry (Ubaye)
  • Col de l'ARGENTERA (04-1991) or Col de Larche, silver ore mining (Alpes Maritimes)

History is not forgotten, and is reflected in the names of some of the passes:

  • Col de CLERGUE MORT (48-0845a): clergue: cleric. The name of this pass evokes the troubled times of the Camisards (Cevennes Protestants) war against the troops of Marshal de Villars during the reign of Louis XIV. A priest is said to have been massacred here.
  • Col de la JUSTICE (07-0679b), the name "justice" is fairly common throughout France. It refers to a rise in the ground on which the "fourches patibulaires" (gallows for the hanged!) were erected. See also: col des FOURCHES (which can also mean crossroads).
  • Col de CASTELLARAS (06-1248) : Castellaras: large fortified castle, ruined castle (Provence).

Animals have also inspired place names:

  • Col de POUTRAN (38-1996b): from poulitra: the filly (Alps)
  • Golet du TAISSON (73-1487): taisson: name given to the badger... Golet du Taisson therefore means: badger hole.

Finally, we can end with a magnificent pleonasm:

  • LAUTARET pass (05-2057): lautaret means... pass!

These place names are part of our heritage in the same way that historic monuments are, and like monuments, they can be put at risk. Rural desertification is resulting in the abandonment of site names that are no longer named because they are uninhabited. The regional languages used to name these sites are no longer understood by the majority of people. City life does not encourage the poetry of place names, preferring technical terms such as ZUP, ZAC, etc. Rehabilitating the names of forgotten passes through research on documents or in the field could be one of the vocations of the Confrérie des Cent Cols.

René POTY
[email]poty@wanadoo.fr[/email]

Bibliographical source :
"Place names in France: a glossary of dialect terms André Pégorier (chief geographer)
Institut géographique national 2nd edition revised and completed by Sylvie Lejeune. Commission de toponymie 1997.

Georges Rossini's response

I've just read René's interesting article on the origins of toponymy and the origin of pass names, in which I note one inaccuracy: the toponym Col de la Joux Verte (74-1765).

The word Joux is of Latin origin and is widely used in the Savoyard idiom to define Joug in French, Joch in German and Giogo in Italian, for example:

Col de la Joux Plane (74-1713)
Stilfser Joch 2758 m, second name in German for Giogo or Passo dello Stelvio
Giogo della Bala 2129 m , both in Lombardy (Italy).

There are various geographical passages bearing the name Joux, such as La Joux in the Chablais and La Joux in the Ain, which are not listed in the Cols de France catalogue.
There's also La Forclaz, a toponym of Latin origin, and Forca in Italian, synonymous with fork. Or Pertuis, synonymous with Porte, Porta in Italian, Port in Spanish, etc.

On the subject of Forca, and the very many passes that have the true characteristics of a geographical passage (depression between two peaks, linking two river valleys), not listed in the catalogue, by consulting the new IGN TOP 25 - 3741 OT map.
In the Vésubie valley (Alpes Maritimes) there is a geographical passage called Forca de l'Authion 1986 m, between the summit 2078 m and the Mille Fourches (!!!) 2042 m, located on the road forming the Authion circuit from the Col de Turini 1604 m. Looking a little further down, there is another geographical passage that should be called Forca de Cabanes Vieilles at 1779 m between the summit of Mille Fourches 2042 m and the summit of Vaiercaout 1816 m.

Of course, you have to abide by the rules, which stipulate that only passes officially bearing this name or marked by a sign at the summit should be used. And yet Joux, Forclaz, Forca, Pertuis, etc. are synonymous with geographical passage.

I'll soon be replying to the Franco-Italian pass imbroglio.

Georges Rossini
[email]georges.rossini@wanadoo.fr[/email]

The IGN's point of view

Hello,

In response to your message of 4 December, we are sending you the following information.

A generic term may have several attested variants: Joux, a feminine noun, can be written jaux, jeux, jeu, jau, jo, joe, jour, jux, zour, dzaou, jor, joeur, jeur, djeux, dieux, jieu, jorasse, jorats. These variants are due to the linguistic areas concerned and the different local dialects.

This word comes from the Gallic juris meaning wooded height; its corresponding Romance words are jours, jorx, jugi, jorz. The scribes confused it with jugum, meaning a piece of wood for harnessing oxen.
In fact, joug, a masculine noun, has the same meaning as the French word, and is another dialect term that designates a unit of land that a pair of oxen ploughs in a given time.
It is important to know the genus in order to deduce the meaning, but sometimes the meaning changes or is lost as a result of Latin reworking. The case of uninhabited localities is tricky because their etymology is often dubious due to a lack of ancient forms.

In Italy, giogo, a masculine noun, means pass; but it also designates a yoke with the meaning we know in French. On the other hand, giogaia, a feminine noun, means mountain range or peak.

In Germany, joch, a neuter noun, means both pass and yoke. The most common meaning of serra, sarra, a feminine name, with the Pyrenean variants sarrat, sarrade, is the elongated rocky ridge. This generic term comes from the pre-Latin serra (meaning saw, elongated mountain) and more precisely from serrata, a kind of verbal noun which is the feminine passive participle of the verb serrare, the classic form of which is serare, meaning to close.

The question of gender is more complex.
In the masculine form, the generic Pyrenean term sarrat has 2 meanings: designating a narrow pass, a little-known meaning, whose variants are sarret, sarrot. The other meaning is that of a ridge, a height, an elongated hill, and has the following variants
a well-known variant of the word serre, which is feminine.

The generic Alpine term is serre, meaning elongated hill. In the masculine form, serret means a small hill, and serras means a large hill, but sometimes also a defile (sarras).

I hope that I have provided some clarification.

É. Calvarin