Editing Lake Constance (section)

=== Name ===
The earliest recorded reference to the lakes is by [[Roman Empire|Roman]] geographer [[Pomponius Mela]] around AD&nbsp;43, calling the upper lake ''Lacus Venetus'' and the lower lake ''Lacus Acronius'', the Rhine passing through both. Around AD&nbsp;75, the naturalist [[Pliny the Elder]] called them both ''Lacus Raetiae Brigantinus'' after the main Roman town on the lake, ''[[Bregenz|Brigantium]]'' (later Bregenz). This name is associated with the [[Celts|Celtic]] [[Brigantii]] who lived here, although it is not clear whether the place was named after the tribe or the inhabitants of the region were named after their main settlement. [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] later used the form ''Lacus Brigantiae''.<ref name=Reitzenstein>{{cite book |editor=Wolf-Armin Freiherr von Reitzenstein |title=Lexikon schwäbischer Ortsnamen. Herkunft und Bedeutung. |publisher=[[Verlag C. H. Beck]] |location=Munich, Germany |date=2013 |isbn=978-3-406-65209-7 |page=68 |language=de |url={{Google books|EY6iAAAAQBAJ|page=68|plainurl=yes}}}}</ref>

The current German name of ''Bodensee'' derives from the place name [[Bodman-Ludwigshafen|Bodman]], which probably originally derived from the [[Old High German]] ''bodamon'' which meant "on the soils", indicating a place on level terrain by the lake.<ref name=AB>{{cite journal |author=Arno Borst |title=Bodensee – Geschichte eines Wortes |journal=Schriften des Vereins für Geschichte des Bodenseeraums |volume=99, 100 |date=1982 |issue=Heft 1981/1982 |language=de |publisher=Selbstverlag des Bodenseegeschichtsvereins |location=Friedrichshafen}}</ref>{{rp|500}} This place, situated at the west end of Lake Überlingen (''Überlinger See''), had a more supraregional character for a certain period in the [[early Middle Ages]] as a [[Franks|Frankish]] [[Kaiserpfalz|imperial palace]] (''Königspfalz''), [[Alamanni]]an ducal seat and [[mint (facility)|mint]], which is why the name may have been transferred to the lake ("lake, by which Bodman is situated" = ''Bodmansee''). From 833 or 834, in Latin sources, the name appears in its [[Latinization (historical)|Latinised]] form ''lacus potamicus''.<ref>{{cite book |author=Rolf Zimmermann |title=Am Bodensee |publisher=Stadler Verlagsgesellschaft |location=Konstanz, Germany |date=2004 |isbn=3-7977-0504-2 |page=5 |language=de}}</ref> Therefore, the name actually derived from the Bodman ''Pfalz'' (Latinized as ''Potamum'') was wrongly assumed by monastic scholars like [[Walahfrid Strabo]] to be derived from the Greek word ''potamos'' for "river" and meant "river lake". They may also have been influenced by the fact that the Rhine flowed through the lake.<ref name=AB/>{{rp|501ff}}

[[Wolfram von Eschenbach]] describes it in [[Middle High German]] as the ''Bodemensee'' or ''Bodemsee''<ref>{{cite book |author=Wilhelm Martens |title=Geschichte der Stadt Konstanz |publisher=Gess |location=Konstanz, Germany |pages=6–7 |date=1911 |language=de}}</ref> which has finally evolved into the present German name, ''Bodensee''. The name may be linked to that of the [[Bodanrück]], the hill range between Lake Überlingen and the Lower Lake, and the history of the [[House of Bodman]].

[[File:Alamannien Hochburgund ca 1000.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Location of Lake Constance within the Duchy of Swabia (yellow), 911–1268]]

The German name of the lake, ''Bodensee'', has been adopted by many other languages, for example: Dutch: ''Bodenmeer'', Danish: ''Bodensøen'', Norwegian: ''Bodensjøen'', Swedish: ''Bodensjön'', Finnish: ''Bodenjärvi'', Russian: ''Боденское озеро'', Polish: ''Jezioro Bodeńskie'', Czech: ''Bodamské jezero'', Slovak: ''Bodamské jazero'', Hungarian: ''Bodeni-tó'', Serbo-Croatian: ''Bodensko jezero'', Albanian: ''Liqeni i Bodenit''.

After the [[Council of Constance]] in the 15th century, the alternative name ''Lacus Constantinus'' was used in the (Roman Catholic) Romance language area. This name, which had been attested as early as 1187 in the form ''Lacus Constantiensis'',<ref name=Reitzenstein/> came from the town of Konstanz at the outflow of the Rhine from the Obersee, whose original name, Constantia, was in turn derived from the Roman emperor, [[Constantius Chlorus]] (around 300 AD). Hence the French: ''Lac de Constance'', Italian: ''Lago di Costanza'', Portuguese: ''Lago de Constança'', Spanish: ''Lago de Constanza'', Romanian: ''Lacul Constanța'', Greek: ''Λίμνη της Κωνσταντίας – Limni tis Konstantias''. The Arabic, بحيرة كونستانس ''buħaira Konstans'' and the Turkish, ''Konstanz gölü'', probably go back to the French form of the name. Even in Romance-influenced English the name "Lake Constance" gained a foothold and was then exported into other languages such as Hebrew: ימת קונסטנץ ''yamat Konstanz'' and Swahili: ''Ziwa la Konstanz''. In many languages both forms exist in parallel e.g. [[Romansch language|Romansh]]: ''Lai da Constanza'' and ''Lai Bodan'', Esperanto: ''Konstanca Lago'' and ''Bodenlago''.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

The poetic name, "[[Swabia]]n Sea", was adopted by authors of the [[early modern era]] and the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] from ancient authors, possibly [[Tacitus]]. However, this assumption was based on an error (similar to that of the [[Teutoburg Forest]] and the [[Taunus]]): the Romans sometimes used the name ''Mare Suebicum'' for the [[Baltic Sea]], not Lake Constance. In times when the Romans had located the so-called "[[Suebi]]", then an [[Elbe Germanic tribe]] near a sea, this was understandable. The authors of the [[Early Modern Period]] overlooked this and adopted the name for the largest lake in the middle of the former [[Duchy of Swabia]], which also included parts of today's Switzerland.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Karl Heinz Burmeister |title=Der Bodensee im 16. Jahrhundert |journal=Montfort, Vierteljahreszeitschrift für Geschichte und Gegenwart Vorarlbergs |publisher=Vorarlberger Verlagsanstalt |location=Dornbirn, Austria |volume=57 |date=2005 |issue=Heft 3 |pages=228–262 |url=http://www.vorarlberg.gv.at/pdf/m053burmeisterbodensee.pdf |language=de |via=vorarlberg.gv.at |access-date=2018-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120131092421/http://www.vorarlberg.gv.at/pdf/m053burmeisterbodensee.pdf |archive-date=31 January 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Today the name Swabian Sea (''Schwäbisches Meer'') is only used jocularly as a hyperbolic term for Lake Constance.<ref>{{cite news |author=Klaus Zintz |url=http://www.seezeichen-bodensee.de/files/media/cdn.php?params=%7B%22id%22%3A%22MDB-723c6b68-c469-4906-9424-0df9998ce220-MDB%22%2C%22type%22%3A%22download%22%2C%22date%22%3A%221453829719%22%7D&Stuttgarter-Zeitung_07.08.2015.pdf |title=Der Bodensee lädt nicht nur zum Baden ein. |newspaper=[[Stuttgarter Zeitung]] |location=Stuttgart, Germany |date=7 August 2015 |language=de |via=www.seezeichen-bodensee.de |access-date=2018-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009124006/http://www.seezeichen-bodensee.de/files/media/cdn.php?params=%7B%22id%22:%22MDB-723c6b68-c469-4906-9424-0df9998ce220-MDB%22,%22type%22:%22download%22,%22date%22:%221453829719%22%7D&Stuttgarter-Zeitung_07.08.2015.pdf |archive-date=2016-10-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref>