On the Place Name Wierszczyca – a Town in the District of Tomaszów Lubelski

Abstract

The paper contains a semantic and structural analysis of the place name Wierszczyca. Relying on the earliest records available, the author has proved that the primary form of the place name – Wierzchrzeczyca – was a hydronym that was structurally an endocentric compound made of wirzch > wierzch + rzeczyca. The variant Wierszczyca is a historical development, created through reduction (haplology) of the phonological sequence chrze, with the fricative rž > rsz retained before -czyca. Two later variants of the place name under discussion were: Werszczyca – with the syllable wer-, representing the Ukrainian syllable pattern; and Wereszczyca with the unmotivated sequence -ere-, potentially coined through analogy to the nearby place name of Wierzchrachanie > Werechanie, or otherwise created through wordplay on the Ukrainian names of the type weres, wereszczaty, etc.