The Roman Map of Britain Tremonio Sea Mills, Bristol, Gloucestershire

Termonin (R&C 17) next
Traiectus (AI 486₂ Iter xiv)

    The River Trym joins the Avon at Sea Mills (st5575). Traditionally, the name Abone from AI's confusing Iter xiv has been applied to the Roman settlement there. I believe an early copyist took Termonin's proper form to be a derivative of L. tramitto 'convey across' and replaced it with the more conventional designation for a water crossing, traiectus  'a crossing over, a passing over, passage'. A previous traiectus, for the crossing of the Severn, may, or may not have been previously mentioned in the iter. The distance between Venta Silurum and Abone is given as fourteen Roman miles, and eight on to Traiectus. The distance from the mouth of the Avon to Seamills is about three miles, so an Abone eight miles west of Seamills is impossible if the mileage is correct.

18 January 2003
    The missing piece may have turned up in Breeze, Andrew `Beowulf and The battle of Maldon: trem `pace' and Welsh tremyn `journey'.' Notes and Queries 238: 9-10 (1993).

    Modern Welsh tramwyfa 'a passage, thoroughfare, gangway'; tramwy 'to pass, traverse'. Obsolete Welsh tremynu ' to walk, travel'.

    An obsolete Wesh tremyn 'journey' would explain a British *Tremonio as the 'journey-place', and Latin Traiectus as a competing name for that place. Trym was then the 'river of the journey-place', perhaps in a form identical to *Tremonio.

NMRMIC-1484 SEA MILLS; Bristol Roman settlement ST551759

    Margary's M493 leaves the vicinity of Crediton for Bideford or Barnstaple - perhaps both. All of the sites listed so far converge on Exeter. It would be prudent to consider the possibility that Termonin is a site on the Torridge, Br.*torric-.  Termonin (-onium?) could be interpreted as a copying error for Torric- without difficulty. Next on the list is Mesteuia that may share *teuia with Verteuia North Tawton on the Taw.