User:Seagull123/Petrocorii



The Petrocorii (Pétrocores, Petrocorii) were a Gaulish tribe located in the present-day Dordogne region of France, between the Dordogne and Isle rivers. Their capital was Vesunna, which is today the town of Périgueux. Périgueux as well as the ancient province of Périgord take their names from this tribe.

Etymology


The name "Petrocorii" is composed of two parts. The first part of the word comes from the Gaulish petru- meaning "four". This comes from the ordinal number petuar(ios), which is attested on a piece of pottery from La Graufesenque (tuđđos petuar "fourth batch"). The form petru- is well attested in petru-sidius, petru-decameto ("fourteen"), etc. This is compared with the Gaulish pedwar: pedr- and the Breton pevar meaning "four". This is the same etymology as the Latin quadru- and that of the Gothic fidur- (compare the English "four"), which all come from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetur̥ / ''*kʷetru-. ''

The second part of the word corios means "army" and is found in the ethnonym of Trégor "the three armies" and the Curiosolitae, as well as in different toponyms and names of people. This is the same word as in modern Celtic (compare Irish cuire, meaning "troop" or "army").

The general meaning of Petrocorii is therefore "four armies" or "four clans".

Demonym
The name of the Petrocorii is sometimes used today as a demonym of Périgueux, mainly called Périgourdins.

History
According to, "the Petrocorii lived in the region situated between the Dordogne and the Vézère." In, they supplied around 5000 warriors to Vercingetorix, to aid him to fight the Roman legions of Julius Caesar. Strabo mentions their excellence working with iron.