Zum Ortsnamen Kaaden/Kadaň
On the place-name Kaaden/Kadaň
Author(s): Harald BichlmeierSubject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro jazyk český
Keywords: German family names; Czech family names; Polish family names; Celtic place-names; Slavic place-names; Czech place-names; German(ic)-Slavic contact-zone
Summary/Abstract: The name of the small town Kadaň (Czech), Kaaden (German) in the North-West of the Czech Rebublic lacks an unanimously accepted etymology. The article will discuss the existing etymologies. The Celtic etymology of the place-name proposed some ten years ago in this journal can be dismissed, because too many additional conditioning factors (mostly not corroborated by any parallels) have to be taken into account. It is more probable that the traditional Slavic etymology has to be accepted (again): The Czech place-name Kadaň thus means ‘Kadan’s (castle/town)’ and is derived with the Slavic possessive j-suffix from the rare personal name Common Slavic *Kadanъ, Old Czech Kadan, itself a derivative of the root Common Slavic *kad- ‘to smoke’ vel sim. The German form Kaaden is taken over from Czech Kadaň.
Journal: Acta Onomastica
- Issue Year: LVIII/2017
- Issue No: 58
- Page Range: 16-33
- Page Count: 18
- Language: German
