Editing River Ouse, Yorkshire (section)

==Etymology==
The name was first recorded in about 780 as ''Usa''. It has been speculated that the name is of Romano-Brittonic (Celtic) origin, from an assumed word ''udso-'', assumed to be derived from the [[Indo-European root]] ''wed-'', meaning "water".<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=A. H.|author-link=Albert Hugh Smith|title=The Place-names of the West Riding of Yorkshire|volume=7|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1962|pages=133–134}}</ref> Alternatively, 'Isaf' and 'Ychaf' are common form of place names in modern Welsh (Romano Britonic's successor) meaning 'upper' and 'lower'. The letter 'U' forms an 'I' sound in Welsh. Other sources prefer a [[Proto-Celtic]] origin.<ref>{{Cite book | contribution = Ouse | year = 2010 | title = The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names | editor-last = Watts | editor-first = Victor | page =456 | publisher = Cambridge University Press |isbn=978 0 521 16855 7 }}</ref>

It has been suggested that the Ouse was once known as the 'Ure', but there seems to be no supporting evidence for this claim. The suggestion that the name derives from the Romano-British name of the Ure, assumed to be ''Isurā'' from the Roman name for [[Aldborough, North Yorkshire|Aldborough]], and over time evolved into ''Isis'' and finally the Saxon ''Ouse'', would go some way to explaining how the little tributary Ouse Gill Beck usurps the name of the much larger River Ure.<ref>Ekwall, E. ''English River Names'' (Oxford University Press: 1928). Waite, Alice. ''Exploring the Yorkshire Ouse'' (Countryside Productions: 1988)</ref> However the form Ouse is little changed from the eighth century.