The Ogre is a river in Latvia that is 188 kilometers long. It is a right tributary of the river

Daugava , be, Заходняя Дзвіна (), liv, Vēna, et, Väina, german: Düna , image = Fluss-lv-Düna.png , image_caption = The drainage basin of the Daugava , source1_location = Valdai Hills, Russia , mouth_location = Gulf of Riga, Baltic ...

. In 13th century river was called Wogen or Woga.

Etymology

There are three main versions of the etymology of Ogre's name (both town and river). The first states that the name of the river from which this city derives its name is of

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

origin (угри, ''ugri'', meaning "

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

s") because there used to be many eels in the river Ogre. A popular folk legend says that Catherine the Great of Russia was the one who gave the river this name because there were a lot of eels in the river; however, this lacks any evidence. Whereas Estonian linguist

Paul Alvre Paul Alvre (born Paul Simenson; 3 January 1921 – 18 November 2008) was an Estonian linguist. Early life and career Paul Alvre was born in Tartu to parents Juhan (Simenson) Alvre, a shoemaker, and Emilie Kottart. He studied at Hugo Treffner Gymn ...

takes into consideration an older form of the Ogre river's name (''Wogene, Woga'') first found in

Livonian Chronicle of Henry The ''Livonian Chronicle of Henry'' ( la, Heinrici Cronicon Lyvoniae) offers a Latin narrative of events in Livonia (roughly corresponding to today's inland Estonia and the northern part of Latvia) and surrounding areas from 1180 to 1227. It was ...

(1180–1227), and argues that it cognates with Estonian word ''voog'' (with possible meanings: "stream, flow, waves"), therefore showing connection with

Finno-Ugric language Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is ba ...

s, most probably early

Livonian language The Livonian language ( liv, līvõ kēļ, link=no or ; et, liivi keel, link=yes) is a Finnic language whose native land is the Livonian Coast of the Gulf of Livonia, located in the north of the Kurzeme peninsula in Latvia. Although its last ...

. A third etymology gives a reconstructed form *''Vingrē'', related to Lithuanian ''vingrùs'', "meandering, curly" or Latvian ''vingrs'', "nimble;" thus meaning "the meandering river"; the village of Engure has the same root.

References

Rivers of Latvia {{Latvia-river-stub

Etymology

See also

References