JCeltL, 13 (2009), 1316

The Name of Arthur A New Etymology

Stefan Zimmer
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitt Bonn
Abstract
The name of Arthur, the mythical war-leader and ideal king, probably referring
to a second-century Roman commander in Britain, still lacks an etymology
convincing in every detail. This short note reviews earlier proposals and
presents a new explanation. Welsh Arthur < Latin Artrius is the Latinized form
of a Celtic patronym *Arto-rg-i os, a derivative of *Arto-rs = Old Irish Art-r.

Even in the modern, globalized world, the name of King Arthur is popular
in many circles, and exploited in various kinds of media. Medieval tales
relating his own adventures and more often those of his knights are
perhaps better known today than in the Middle Ages. The origin of his
name is still a puzzle, though many proposals have been made. The
following is intended to clarify the discussion and to attempt a substantial
step towards a deeper understanding of the case.
As I have discussed in a previous publication (Zimmer 2006, with
earlier references), the name of King Arthur is most probably that of a
well-known historical figure, that is, the Roman general Lucius Artorius
Castus, probably a native of Dalmatia, and buried in Podstrana near
Strobe, not far from Split. His career is succinctly reviewed in the
(unfortunately undated, as usual) epitaph CIL III/Suppl. 2, nr. 12791; cf.
also III/1, no. 1919 + III/Suppl. 1, no. 8513. Among other deeds, he
served as commander (praefectus castrorum) of the Legio VI Victrix in
York, and later as leader (dux) of British legions fighting in Aremorica in
the year 184. His fame must have lived on among his veterans and their
descendants, so that the legendary dux bellorum of the British kings
fighting against the Anglo-Saxons in the fifth and sixth centuries was soon
named Arthur after that prominent Roman soldier.
1. The name of Arthur is therefore intimately linked with Latin
Artorius. This is a common name in Roman inscriptions. The exact
number of attestations cannot be established: RE names 10 or 11 men

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called Artorius, plus one Artoria; the epigraphical databank in Eichsttt

(www.manfredclauss.de) has many more. Two features are noteworthy:
Artorius is nearly1 exclusively used as a nomen gentile, never as a
praenomen or cognomen, and it is often used by liberti, liberated former
captives (slaves).
The following formal possibilites for explaining the name may be
considered:2
1.1. Artorius as a genuine Latin formation may belong to the word
family of ars art, skill, craftmanship, and be a derivative of artus, -s
(masculine substantive) structure, joints, or, less likely, from artus
(adjective) structured, tight. Artorius might have been a substantivized
adjective meaning joiner (not necessarily in the restricted sense of the
modern English word).
1.2. Artorius might be an epichoric name from Dalmatia. But we can
hardly inquire further because next to nothing is known about the ancient
languages of the region. A few names of ethnic groups, such as Liburni
and Illyrii, together with some personal names are attested. They are
mostly isolated and have not been connected to known languages.
1.3. The third possibility is to take Artorius as an originally Celtic
name, Latinized rather early. After all, Celts were present in the region
very early. In northern Italy, Celtic invaders arrived in the sixth and fifth
centuries BC; they reached the northern coast of the Adratic by the fourth
century at the latest. All these Celts underwent rapid Romanization: by the
end of the republic, Celtic was no longer spoken there. Furthermore, the
many liberti called Artorius may have been captives from wars against the
Cisapline Gauls (or from some similar circumstances).
1.3.1. If Artorius is Latinzed Celtic, the root etymology is salient.
Celtic *artos is the word for bear, well attested since antiquity.
Practically all the names of the big predators figure in Indo-European
onomastics. The bear is found in many Celtic names (see e.g. Delamarre
2007: 27). Simple names like Artos, Artus,3 Irish Art; derivatives such as
patronyms, e.g. Galatian Artiknos, and hypocoristica of the type Artillus,
Artilla. A fine example of the latter has been found in Trier (CIL XIII/1.1,
no. 3909): HIC QUIESCIT IN PACE URSULA . . . ARTULA MATER TIT(ULUM)
POSUIT. Mother and daughter bear the same name, the mother still in
Celtic, the daughter already in the Roman tongue. This is typical for the

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language switch implied in Romanization throughout the empire.4 Bear
is also found in the noblest type of Indo-European proper names,
nominal compounds, cf. Comartio-rix king of [men] connected with
(= comparable to ?) bears, or Artebudz (Ptuj, Slovenia), which may be a
late form of *Arto-buos having a bears penis (according to Eichner et
al. 1994). There are a number of Insular Celtic names obviously
continuing Old Celtic formations:
Old Irish Artbe = Old Welsh Artbeu = Old Breton Arthbiu, all < Old
Celtic *Arto-biuo- quick as a bear;
Old Irish Artgal = Old Welsh Arthgal, Middle Welsh Arthal, < *Artogalno-, possibly having the vigour of / vigorous like a bear;
Old Irish Artr < *Arto-rs king of bears / bear-like king, besides
Old Welsh and Old Breton Arthmail, Middle Welsh Arthuael, Middle
Breton Arzmail, Modern Breton Armel < *Arto-maglos prince of / among
bears or bear-like prince.
In all these names, bear may mean prince or warrior, but may
also refer to the real animal, to a totem figure, or to a godhead. After all, a
Celtic goddess Artio is well attested, from Muri (near Bern in
Switzerland) see Figure 1 and from Daun (CIL 4203), Stockstadt (CIL
XIII 11789), and Weilerbach (Luxembourg) (CIL XIII 4113).5
2. Recently, Ch. Gwinn (apud Delamarre 2003: 56) has proposed to
understand Artorius directly as a Latinized version of *Arto-rs. This
cannot be excluded categorically, but is highly unlikely. The Romans used
to treat all the many Celtic names in -rs, well known at least since
Caesars commentaries on his Gaulish wars, like their own word rex, regis
because the close relation of the two lexemes (in fact, their etymological
identity) was obvious to them. So, a Celtic *Arto-rs should
automatically appear in a Latin context as *Artorix but it never does.6
3. Up to now, the word-formation of Artorius has not been explained
satisfactorily. With due caution, I propose to understand Artorius
exclusively used as gentilicium as mentioned above as the Latinized
version of a Celtic patronym *Arto-rg-ios. This is nowhere attested in the
Celtic world. But the basic *Arto-rs is, see above OIr. Artr; the British
forms with second member *-maglos are but a variant of the same.

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Figure 1. By courtesy of Historisches Museum, Bern.

The patronymic type in *-ios is well known, cf. Gaulish names such as
Tarbeisonios son of Tarbeisu; and of course, outside Celtic, especially
in Greek. It should be safe to assume as a working hypothesis that the *-gunderwent a kind of early lenition (whether a Latin or Celtic phenomenon
need not detain us) to the spirant --/-j-, giving, with subsequent
assimilation of [j] > [jj] > [j], *Artorjos.7 The Latinization implied two
simple adaptations to Latin:8
3.1. According to Latin writing conventions, *[artori:jos] or
*[artori:jos] was spelled, with automatic replacement of the Celtic ending
by Latin -us, as Artorius.
3.2. Following the obvious and frequent pattern of Latin nouns in
-rius, -a, -um, regular derivative adjectives to agent nouns (including
proper names) in -tr, the short -- in *Artrius was replaced by --, and
the long -- shortened, thus producing a totally Latin-sounding Artrius.
3.3. The subsequent phonetic development from Latin Artrius to
Early Welsh Arthur is perfectly regular (cf. L labrem > W llafur, etc.).

The Name of Arthur 135

4. Finally, it must be admitted that the presumed tradition from
LUCIUS ARTORIUS CASTUS, second century, to the dux bellorum Arthurus
in the Dark Ages of Britain cannot have been an undisturbed, textually
continuous one. Most early Latin texts mentioning Arthur spell the name
Arthur (this is the standard Welsh form) or, with a Latin ending, Arthurus,
but never Artorius.9 The latter, obviously, was unknown to the written
tradition. The name-forms Artus and Artu are later Romance adaptations.

Notes
1.

2.

3.
4.
5.

6.
7.
8.
9.

This qualification is necessary since there is one Artorius Modestus from

Narbonne (CIL XII 5204); he may have been related to C. Artorius
Orta[. . . (CIL XII 4623) and to Artoria Procula (CIL XII 5066).
The old proposal by the great Wilhelm Schulze (1904) who argued for
Etruscan origin of Ar-torius (as he analysed the name) may be safely
discarded.
Cf. CIL XIII 10008,7: Artus Dercomogni (from Maar, near Trier); not
mentioned in Delamarre (2007).
Torsten Meissner points to the pertinent comments by Raepsaet-Charlier
(2001) on the names of the Treveres. See now also Meissner (2010).
This latter inscription Artioni Biber To [the goddess] Artio, Biber [gave
this] may explain that at the same place, Artio is known as a mans
name: Artio Agritius (CIL XIII 4203).
Cf. the inscription from Carlisle in Britain: TANCORIX MULIER VIGSIT
ANNOS SEGSAGINTA (RIB 908).
Cf. the parallel development in briga: Fr. Brie presupposes *Bria < Briga;
Conim-briga > Coimbra.
Graham Isaac kindly proposed that I should make this explicit.
A twelfth-century variant Arcturus is due to learned speculation, linking
the name with the asteronym Arcturus, designating the constellation
Bootes, and especially the most brilliant star near the Great Bears tail
end (< Greek - Bear warder). It gained a certain popularity in
British royal heraldry (cf. Anglo 1963).

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RE
RIB

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