Etymology
The name "Beaulieu" is French, meaning "beautiful place".
The earlier name, "Exe", is Brythonic, deriving from an original Ancient British word '*Iska', which is also at the root of other Exe and Esk river-names in England, and also the Usk in Wales (Wysg in Welsh). Its root meaning may be "fish" or "fish-place", as it seems to be cognate with the Latin "pisces" and Greek "ichthus", as well as English "fish".
Read more about this topic: Beaulieu River
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)