The commonest English equivalent is -wick, and there are plenty of -ck endings too. I think the -y endings might be a little further removed from -ck, in dialectal variance. Gordon Barlow > To clarify the 'ac' question: > > 'Ac' seems to have been a Celtic suffix denoting 'place of' (rather like AS 'tun'). The placename's first element is almost always a personal name. > > In other regions of France it survives as "-at" in Auvergne, "-ach" or" -ig" in Alsace, "-é" in Poitou and Brittany, "-ey" in Champagne, and "-y" in the area south of Paris. > > I would guess that Welsh placenames ending '-og' are similar. > > IB >

wick comes from OE 'wic' which inturn came from Latin 'vicus'. The latest thinking on 'wic' is much the same as Cameron thought in 'English Place Names ' Revised edition 1996, that it meant a specialist farm or settlement. As far as I can see neither Cameron or Gelling give any examples of a Celtic ' place of'. David Pott KFHS 8776 The Beaver Inn, Ashford, Kent. The Elmsted site http://members.lycos.co.uk/elmsted/index.html ----- Original Message ----- > The commonest English equivalent is -wick, and there are plenty of -ck > endings too. I think the -y endings might be a little further removed > from -ck, in dialectal variance. > > > 'Ac' seems to have been a Celtic suffix denoting 'place of' (rather like > AS 'tun'). The placename's first element is almost always a personal name.

David, you are of course right in associating "wick" with the Latin word. Nevertheless, one can entertain the possibility that every -wick name in England was once a -ck place-name indicator, in the time before the Latin renaming of such places. It is at least reasonable to propose that the Latin word was a variant of another Indo-European word carrying the same meaning. (And if not a variant of a such a word, what was the origin of the Latin?) Also, what word or suffix did the British or Irish Celts use as a place-indicator? Gordon Barlow > wick comes from OE 'wic' which inturn came from Latin 'vicus'. The latest > thinking on 'wic' is much the same as Cameron thought in 'English Place > Names ' Revised edition 1996, that it meant a specialist farm or settlement. > As far as I can see neither Cameron or Gelling give any examples of a Celtic > ' place of'. > > David Pott >