Names
Historical names of the lake are Gegharkuni (Armenian: Գեղարքունի), Sea of Gegham (Armenian: Գեղամա ծով Geghama tsov), Lychnitis (Greek and Latin), and (Turkic: Gökçe or Göyçə). On Russian map of 1902 the name of the lake is given as "Gokce or Sevanga". The name Sevan literally means "Black Van" referring to Lake Van. It is said that long ago, Armenians came from the areas around Lake Van to Lake Sevan. They saw that the lake was dark and almost black yet reminded them of Van, therefore the lake was called Sevan. The Old Georgian name for the lake drew from the name of its old inhabitants (i.e. before the fall of Urartu), the Èrs- it was called "Lake Ereta" by Leonti Mroveli in his Georgian Chronicles.
For a long time, the word "Sevan" was known to be connected with the monastery in the small island of the lake Sevan called "Sev Vank" ("Black Monastery") built with black tuff. And this was known to be the etymology of name Sevan. But it was obviously wrong, because the word "Sevan" was older than the monastery itself. Finally, the etymology of word "Sevan" was found in Teyseba (the cuneiform inscription by Rusa I (730—714 B.C.)). This inscription was a "birth certificate" of the term "Sevan". It was mentioned as "Suinia" or "Tsuinia". Thus, the etymology of "Sevan" is similar to Yerevan's etymology. It was named after simple geographical names, as water, river, lake, mount, etc. Later scientists found that "Suinia" or "Tsuinia" means "lake" or "basin" in Urartian.
Read more about this topic: Lake Sevan
Famous quotes containing the word names:
“And even my sense of identity was wrapped in a namelessness often hard to penetrate, as we have just seen I think. And so on for all the other things which made merry with my senses. Yes, even then, when already all was fading, waves and particles, there could be no things but nameless things, no names but thingless names. I say that now, but after all what do I know now about then, now when the icy words hail down upon me, the icy meanings, and the world dies too, foully named.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
““Well then, it’s Granny speaking: ‘I dunnow!
Mebbe I’m wrong to take it as I do.
There ain’t no names quite like the old ones, though,
Nor never will be to my way of thinking.
One mustn’t bear too hard on the newcomers,
But there’s a dite too many of them for comfort....’””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Shut out that stealing moon,
She wears too much the guise she wore
Before our lutes were strewn
With years-deep dust, and names we read
On a white stone were hewn.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)