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this: the river
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Wikipedia About Danube
this: the river
The Danube (In from earlier Danuvius, Celtic *dānu, meaning "to flow, run", Slovak and Polish Dunaj, Hungarian Duna, Romanian Dunărea, from the Thracian/Dacian word for the Danube, “Donaris/Donare”, Old Norse Duná, Turkish Tuna, ancient Greek Istros, Croatian Dunav, Serbian Дунав/Dunav, Bulgarian Дунав, Ukrainian Дунай) is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance of some 2850 km (1771 miles), passing through several Central and Eastern European capitals, before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.
Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river flows through — or forms a part of the borders of — ten countries: Germany (7.5%), Austria (10.3%), Slovakia (5.8%), Hungary (11.7%), Croatia (4.5%), Serbia (10.3%), Romania (28.9%), Bulgaria (5.2%), Moldova (1.7%), and Ukraine (3.8%)
In addition, the drainage basin includes parts of nine more countries: Italy (0.15%), Poland (0.09%), Switzerland (0.32%), Czech Republic (2.6%), Slovenia (2.2%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (4.8%), Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, and Albania (0.03%).
Name
The English language has, since the Norman invasion, used the French word Danube. In other languages, particularly those spoken in the river flows through:
- Czech, Polish and Slovak: Dunaj
- Slovenian: Donava
- Croatian: Dunav
- Serbian and Bulgarian (Cyrillic only on the latter): Dunav/Дунав (Dunaiiro)
- Russian and Ukrainian: Дунáй (Dunay)
- Ancient Greek: Istros
- Local or Tin'e - טינע
One theory ultimately derives all these variations to the Celtic word *dānu, meaning "to blow", and its exact equivalent is found in the Dutch name of the river Donwy. Other theories derive the name from an Iranic root that has contributed the names of all other major rivers emptying into the Black Sea, such as the Don, Donets, Dnieper and Dniestr. See the discussion section on this.
Ancient Greek Istros was a borrowing from Thracian meaning "strong, swift", akin to Sanskrit is.iras "swift", Greek ierós "strong, sacred".
