{"id":9265,"date":"2026-07-31T21:13:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/?p=9265"},"modified":"2026-07-31T21:13:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:13:45","slug":"confluent-ravines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/2026\/07\/31\/confluent-ravines\/","title":{"rendered":"Confluent Ravines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this post we&#8217;re looking at words for <strong>ravine<\/strong> and related things in Celtic languages.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/conifer\/45731526951\/in\/photolist-2cF92GB-9E8PD4-Pd8zSx-5vmMvP-cTFBPC-dCn75x-2hqU5vM-cTFEHC-Pmorw-cTFBqy-2hqU4eD-2kF6tqo-6mZxXZ-qkstkf-2rAxJvF-pu6f5-osCSEj-cTFBW9-2ojyEht-7zxA7N-cTFFMy-5QAgYE-2nUtY14-21v5Yz8-ddr2uB-AKrK1N-uzizb3-AKrJDf-AKrJQs-AKrJMb-AKrK5f-Pd8AaM-Pd8ybg-cTFE57-Pd8A32-AKrK29-AKrHsN-Pd8ANF-Pd8zZr-P5krnM-P5kh2c-Pd8Agi-AKrKnu-AKrJA9-P5khrR-Pd8vNa-cTFEeC-AKrHXA-P5khRt-P5krtt\" title=\"hikers on the rock fall\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1928\/45731526951_2d4693cdc0_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"hikers on the rock fall\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Words marked with a * are reconstructions.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th>Proto-Celtic<\/th>\n<td><strong>*komberos. *komboros<\/strong> = place where river water brews up, confluence (<em>place where rivers meet<\/em>), dam, barrage<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Gaulish<\/th>\n<td><strong>*comberos<\/strong> = river dam<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Old Irish (Go\u00eddelc)<\/th>\n<td><strong>commar<\/strong> = confluence, meeting place<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Irish (Gaoidhealg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>commar, commur, commor<\/strong> = confluence (of rivers), assembly, meeting place<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Irish (Gaeilge)<\/th>\n<td><strong>cumar<\/strong> = ravine (usually with a stream), steep-sided inlet (of the sea), channel, rut<br \/>\n<strong>cumarach<\/strong> = channelled, rutted<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Scottish Gaelic (G\u00e0idhlig)<\/th>\n<td><strong>comar<\/strong> [kom\u0259r] = confluence, concourse<br \/>\n<strong>comarach<\/strong> [kom\u0259r\u0259x] = pertaining to or abounding in confluences; confluent<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Old Welsh (Kembraec)<\/th>\n<td><strong>cmer<\/strong> = confluence, meeting of waters, meeting place or clash of armies<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Welsh (Kymraec)<\/th>\n<td><strong>cimer, kimer<\/strong> = confluence, meeting of waters, meeting place or clash of armies<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Welsh (Cymraeg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>cymer<\/strong> [\u02c8k\u0259m\u025br] = confluence (of rivers or streams), meeting of waters, meeting place or clash of armies<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Cornish (Kernewek)<\/th>\n<td><strong>kemper<\/strong> = confluence, junction of streams<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Breton (Brezhoneg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>kember<\/strong> [\u02c8k\u025bm.b\u025br] = confluence<br \/>\n<strong>kemberi\u00f1<\/strong> [k\u025bm.\u02c8be\u02d0.r\u0129] = to converge<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Etymology<\/strong>: from Proto-Celtic <em>*kom-<\/em> (with, together) and <em>*berwos-<\/em> (stew), from PIE <em>*\u1e31\u00f3m<\/em> (beside, near, by with) and <em>*b\u02b0rewh\u2081<\/em> (to boil, brew).<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same Proto-Celtic roots, via Gaulish <em>*comberos<\/em> and Latin <em>combrus<\/em> (river dam, may include <strong>encombrer<\/strong> (to block off, clutter, congest, encumber, burden) in French, <strong>escombrar<\/strong> (to clear out, clean out) in Spanish, and <strong>cumbersome<\/strong>, <strong>encumber<\/strong> and <strong>incumbrance<\/strong> in English [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic\/komberos\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same PIE roots possibly include <strong>berwi<\/strong> (to boil) and <strong>brwd<\/strong> (eager, keen) in Welsh, <strong>br\u00e6nde<\/strong> (to burn, distill) in Danish, <strong>brouwen<\/strong> (to brew) in Dutch, <strong>brouiller<\/strong> (to blur, confuse) in French, <strong>bruth<\/strong> (heat, rash) in Irish, and <strong>bread<\/strong>, <strong>brew<\/strong>, <strong>broth<\/strong>, <strong>burn<\/strong>, <strong>fervor<\/strong> in English [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic\/komberos\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>For more words for <strong>confluence<\/strong> and related things see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/2021\/07\/08\/river-mouths\/\">Rivers Mouths<\/a> post.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sources: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/\">Wiktionary<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.faclair.com\/\">Am Faclair Beag<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mannin.info\/Mannin\/fockleyr\/m2e.php\">Online Manx Dictionary<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teanglann.ie\/en\/fgb\/ceann\">Teanglann.ie<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/dil.ie\/\">eDIL &#8211; Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www3.smo.uhi.ac.uk\/sengoidelc\/duil-belrai\/english.html\">In D\u00fail B\u00e9lrai English &#8211; Old Irish glossary<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/geiriadur.ac.uk\/gpc\/gpc.html\">Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cornishdictionary.org.uk\/browse?field_word_value=penn\">Gerlyver Kernewek<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arkaevraz.net\/dicobzh\/index.php\">Dictionaire Favereau<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brezhoneg.bzh\/87-termofis.htm\">TermOfis<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wales.ac.uk\/Resources\/Documents\/Research\/CelticLanguages\/EnglishProtoCelticWordList.pdf\">English &#8211; ProtoCeltic WordList<\/a> (PDF), <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/embed\/EtymologicalDictionaryOfProtoCeltic\">Etymological Dictionary Of Proto Celtic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/my.kualo.com\/uk\/go\/00572\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.kualo.com\/rewards\/uk-unlimited2-468x60.gif\" width=\"468\" height=\"60\" border=\"0\"\nalt=\"Unlimited Web Hosting - Kualo\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this post we&#8217;re looking at words for ravine and related things in Celtic languages. Words marked with a * are reconstructions. Proto-Celtic *komberos. *komboros = place where river water brews up, confluence (place where rivers meet), dam, barrage Gaulish *comberos = river dam Old Irish (Go\u00eddelc) commar = confluence, meeting place Middle Irish (Gaoidhealg) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,16,26,63,81,19,20,44,25,21,3,36,37,7,27,10,40,12,13,23,82,43,18,14],"tags":[52,80,248,441,51,145,48,47,53,49,440,55,50],"class_list":["post-9265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives","category-breton","category-kernewek-cornish","category-danish-dansk","category-dutch-nederlands","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-gaulish","category-gaeilge-irish","category-language","category-latin","category-middle-irish","category-middle-welsh-kymraec","category-nouns","category-old-irish-goidelc","category-old-welsh","category-proto-celtic","category-proto-indo-european","category-gaidhlig-scottish-gaelic","category-spanish-espanol","category-verbs","category-cymraeg-welsh","category-words","tag-breton","tag-celtic","tag-confluence","tag-convergence","tag-cornish","tag-etymology","tag-gaelic","tag-irish","tag-language","tag-manx","tag-ravine","tag-scottish-gaelic","tag-welsh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9267,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9265\/revisions\/9267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}