Vascones

See also: vascones

Latin

Vasconia, the area of the Vascones in ancient Roman Iberia

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Οὐασκώνων (Ouaskṓnōn) attested in Strabo's 1st-century Geographica, Book III, of uncertain origin.

Variously derived from αἴξ (aíx, “goat”) (literally “he-goat people”) or a variant of Ausci. According to Antonio Tovar, the name could have been from an exonym of entirely Proto-Indo-European origin given to the Basques by earlier Indo-Europeans inhabiting Basque country, based on the name ba(r)scunes found inscribed on coins matching the territory and period. The name would have been comprised of:

• the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- (“tip, point, top”)
• the suffix *-kon-
• the consonant stem suffix *-es indicating the name as a nominative plural

Thus, the name would have meant something like "the high (proud) people." Probably unrelated to the Basque endonym Euskara, despite the similarity.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯as.ko.neːs/, [ˈu̯äs̠kɔneːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈvas.ko.nes/, [ˈväskones]

Proper noun

Vasconēs m pl (genitive Vasconum); third declension

1. (historical) Vascones (a pre-Roman tribe between the Ebro and the Pyrenees in northeastern Hispania Tarraconensis generally taken to be the early Basques)
2. (New Latin) Basques

Declension

Third-declension noun, plural only.

Case	Plural
Nominative	Vasconēs
Genitive	Vasconum
Dative	Vasconibus
Accusative	Vasconēs
Ablative	Vasconibus
Vocative	Vasconēs

Derived terms

• Vasconia

 

Descendants

• Galician: Bascuas (place name)

References

• “Vascones”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Vascones in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• Vascones in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “Vascones”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “Vascones”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly