Last things first - Senua/Senuna is the name of the goddess of the spring near Baldock. Please also see ERN p148 under 'Ennick'. We discussed the river-name on this list some years ago. Ekwall found it curious that streams might be considered 'old'. My suggestion was that it meant 'constant, reliable (i.e. not seasonal)', an earlier sense of the word.
If *seno- can have a different sense as a water-word why not *nouio? We have Ptolemy's Kainos limen, translated back to Latin as Novus portus, and Nuba (Nova) of the Cosmography's series Anderelio Nuba. Mutuantonis.
For some time I've been kicking around the idea that as a water-word *nouio refers to a river (or section of a river) that regularly floods and renews the surrounding land. I haven't had the time to investigate the continental sites. If I'm right a 'new plain' can be explained.
The Cosmography's river-names, though often corrupt, are not entirely impenetrable. The great majority can be identified and are in a sensible order. I don't see the Cosmography as any more corrupt than the other British sources, just a victim of neglect.
I'm quite pressed for time at the moment, but will address your other concerns as soon as possible.
---- Keith Briggs <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Scholarly opinion seems to be converging on magos = ‘market’, not ‘plain’ (Falileyev, Dict. of continental Celtic PNs, 23-4). It’s a strong argument that there are six cases of Noviomagus, and at least one Senomagus (Sénon, Falileyev pp. 173, 202). What is a ‘new plain’?
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> So if there really was a Senomago in Britain (not Sito- etc.), which should look for it at a place with good communications. The last time I computed the mileages, I got to a point near Peasnhall, where conveniently two Roman roads meet at right angles (TM355692 - photos of the house there at http://keithbriggs.info/then_and_now.html).
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> The evidence for a river Senua is virtually non-existent, since it occurs only in the Ravenna list of British rivers, most of which are unidentifiable (probably because the forms are corrupt).
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Tom Ikins
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