Editing River Mersey (section)

==Etymology==
The name "Mersey" is derived from the [[Old English|Anglo-Saxon]] {{lang|ang|mǣres}}, 'of a boundary' and {{lang|ang|ēa}}, 'a river'.<ref name="Mills, A D 1998 240"/> The Mersey was possibly the 'border river' between [[Mercia]] and [[Northumbria]].<ref name="Arrowsmith 1997 21"/> Its Welsh name is {{lang|cy|[[:cy:Afon Merswy|Afon Merswy]]}}. Prior to Anglo-Saxon conquest of the region, the river was almost certainly known by a Celtic name - recorded by [[Ptolemy]] as "Seteia" (as the Southern border of the Brittonic "[[Setantii]]" tribe). "Seteia" and "Setantii" both lack clear Celtic roots, leading some to suggest that this was likely a corruption of the actual name.<ref name="A Breeze Meteia" /> Some, including David Parsons, have suggested the original forms "Segeia" and "Segantii" - based on the root "sego" meaning "strong".<ref name="DN Parsons Ptolemy">{{cite journal |last1=Parsons |first1=David N. |title=Classifying Ptolemy's English Place-Names |journal=Ptolemy: Towards a Linguistic Atlas of the Earliest Celtic Place-Names of Europe |date=2000 |pages=169–78}}</ref> [[Andrew Breeze]] instead suggests the original forms "Meteia" and "Metantii" - from "met" meaning "cut" or "harvest" - with the likely meaning being that the Metantii were "reapers (of men), cutters-down (of enemies)", with the river Meteia meaning "reaping one" or "she that cuts down" (Breeze notes the possibility of a local deity associated with the river, but highlights that this is only a supposition based on known deities like [[Sulis]] and [[Aerfen]]).<ref name="A Breeze Meteia">{{cite journal |last1=Breeze |first1=Andrew |title=Three Celtic Toponyms: Setantii, Blencathra, and Pen-y-Ghent |journal=Northern History |date=2006 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=161–165 |doi=10.1179/174587006X89483 |url=https://doi.org/10.1179/174587006X89483}}</ref>