DonRiver

Don River

A river of western Russia flowing about 1,963 km (1,220 mi) generally south then west into the northeast Sea of Azov. It is linked with the Volga River by a canal near Volgograd.

 

Word History: The Don River in Mother Russia is well known, as are the unruly Cossacks who dwelt there, defying khan and czar. But there are also six Don Rivers in the United Kingdom! Were there Cossacks in Shropshire? Hardly. All these Don Rivers flow from one Indo-European source. The Indo-European root *dā- means “to flow, flowing,” and its suffixed derivative *dānu- means “river.” In Avestan, the earliest Iranian language we know, dānu- means “river, stream.” In modern Ossetic (the language of the Ossets, descendants of the Scythians, an Iranian tribe of the Russian steppes), don means “river, stream.” The Don River of Russia (and the UK) therefore simply translates as “the River River.” The Russian rivers Dnieper and Dniester (earlier Danapris and Danastius, respectively) come from Scythian Dānu apara and Dānu nazdya (“the river in the rear” and “the river in front,” respectively). The six Don rivers in Britain come from the Celtic version of the “river” word, also dānu-. This survives more or less intact in the name of the Danube, which was called Dānuvius by the Romans. The presence of Celtic river names both in Britain and in central Europe attests to the Celts' earlier glory as one of the most important peoples of ancient Europe.

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