On Supposedly Celtic Toponymy in Castile: The Case of Arevalo in Avila

The need for caution in the attribution of pre-Roman origins to placenames that are not easily explained from Latin is demonstrated in the case of a Spanish placename of great etymological difficulty, Arevalo, for which scholars have unanimously proposed a Celtic origin on grounds of the geographical location & a formal similarity with the name of an ancient people known in Spanish as arevacos. The phonological, semantic, & cultural difficulties of this etymology are avoided by an alternative derivation from a Latin colloquial form acrifulu 'holly', which would have developed to agrebalo or arevalo in the local Romance variety & is supported by other Iberian placenames reflecting this etymon. A list of minor placenames in the municipality of Arevalo is appended. Appendixes. Adapted from the source document