Editing Douro (section)

== Name ==
The [[Latin]] name ''Durius'' might have been a [[Celt|Celtic name]] before the overwhelming Romanization of Iberia. If so, the [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] root could have been ''*dubro-'' (in that family of languages the final vowel sound often changes with context, as in Latin).<ref name="Ferguson1862">{{cite book|author=Robert Ferguson|title=The River-names of Europe|url=https://archive.org/details/rivernameseurop02ferggoog|year=1862|publisher=Williams & Norgate|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rivernameseurop02ferggoog/page/n34 26]–}}</ref> However, were that the case, the -''b''-, of which there remains no trace, would not have disappeared, as evidenced by place-names derived from [[Gaulish]] ''*dubron'' (plural ''dubra''), such as French [[Douvres]] and English [[Dover]] (3rd/4th-century ''Dubris''; ''Douvres'' in French), Spanish Dobra, German [[Tauber]] (''Dubra-gave'' 807), and Gaelic/[[Old Irish]] ''dobur'' "water" and river name ''Dobhar'' in Ireland and Scotland.<ref name="Delamarre">[[Xavier Delamarre]], ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise'', Éditions Errance, 2003, p. 151 - 152</ref> Modern [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''dŵr'' "water" is cognate with modern [[Breton language|Breton]] ''dour'' and Cornish ''dur'' "water" and results from a later typical Brittonic evolution of ''*dubro-'',<ref name="Delamarre"/> unknown in the [[Continental Celtic languages]].

The possible origin is the [[hydronymic]] root ''*dur-'', which is [[Pre-Indo-European languages|Pre-Indo-European]] or [[Pre-Celtic]]. [[Albert Dauzat]] linked this river name to a Pre-Celtic hydronymic root ''*dor-'', which is well attested in [[Western Europe]]: in France [[Doire]], [[Doron (disambiguation)|Doron]], Douron, etc. and in Italy [[Dora Riparia|Dora]], etc.<ref name="Dauzat">[[Albert Dauzat]], Gaston Deslandes et [[Charles Rostaing]], ''Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de rivières et de montagnes en France'', [[Klincksieck]], Paris, 1978, p. 41b.</ref> The meaning of this element is, however, unknown.<ref name="Dauzat"/>

A [[False etymology|folk-etymological]] derivation suggests that the name comes from the Portuguese or Spanish term for "golden".<ref>Nick Timmons, ''Portugal'' (1994), p. 99: "The Douro... the Golden River (d'ouro means 'of gold')..."</ref><ref>''DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Portugal'' (2016), p. 239: "...the Douro or "Golden River" weaves its scenic path through deep-cleft gorges..."</ref>