Abstract
The paper is devoted to the origin of a set of supposedly related Polish place names pointing to a Slavic proto-form *žьgъrʹь. Its main results can be summarized as follows:
— The supposed topographic appellative is preserved in four to seven Polish, place or terrain names in Central and Northern Poland. Its precise meaning and etymology is not quite clear.
— Nevertheless, it cannot be excluded that a derivative of this rare word was preserved in Montenegro as žàgrica ʽslope’, the exact proto-form of which, however, cannot be established with certainty for the moment. The Slovak place name Žehra could be related as well.
— An etymology is considered which attaches *žьgъrʹь < *gigura- to the reduplicated root contained, e.g., in Old Indic jígāti.
— The name of a ford on the Orzyc river (northeastern Poland), attested in the middle 14th century as Old Prussian Zingurbrast and Old Polish Żgierz should be considered rather as an originally Slavic (Proto- or Old Polish) toponym.
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