 Surviving fragment of the town walls of Durnovaria | |
  Location of Durnovaria within England | |
| Location | Dorchester, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 50°42′54″N 2°26′13″W / 50.715°N 2.437°W |
| Type | Roman city |
| History | |
| Founded | c. 65 or 70 AD |
| Abandoned | likely shortly after c. 410 AD |
| Periods | Roman Empire |
Durnovaria is a suggested spelling for the Latin form of the name of the Roman town of Dorchester in the modern English county of Dorset, amended from the actually observed Durnonovaria. Upon the assumption that the name was originally Brythonic, it is suggested that the first element in the name, *durno- may mean "fist" like (Welsh dwrn[1] ‘fist, knob’) and the second may be related to Old Irish fáir ~ fóir denoting a confined area[2] or den. A simpler amendment (one letter instead of two) would lead to *Duronovaria, making this place one of up to 18 ancient British names that contain Duro- and mostly occur at river crossings, while -novaria has two possible ancient parallels in Britain associated with river junctions. That analysis would perfectly fit the geographical situation of Dorchester.[citation needed]