Etymology
The word "Rhone" comes from Latin Rhodanus, which itself comes from Greek Ῥοδανός Rhodanos, the Greek rendering of the Gaulish (Celtic) name of the river, as heard by Greeks' living in the colony of Massalia (Marseille). The Celtic name of the river was something like Rodonos or Rotonos (Great River) (-onos/-ona is a suffix meaning Great). Rodo/Roto, literally "that which rolls", or "that which runs", is a frequent name of rivers in the ancient Celtic tongue. It was also the name of the lower Seine, as well as several other rivers of western Europe. The Celtic name comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *ret- ("to run, roll"), which yielded the word rota ("wheel") in Latin, from which is derived "rotate" and "to roll" in English. Cognates in modern Celtic languages are Irish rith (in some dialects ruth or ruith, Scottish ruith/rith and Welsh rhedeg, both meaning "to run", as well as the Gaelic noun roth wheel.
Some scholars posit that the root rot- or rod- found in the name "Rhone" as well as in the name of many western European rivers, and whose original meaning seems to be "river", is in fact Pre-Indo-European. It would then be only a coincidence that it resembles the Proto-Celtic verb reto ("to run"). Further research is needed to decide between these two theories
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