Hallstatt

English

A view of the town of Hallstatt.

Some pottery from the Hallstatt Culture.

Etymology

German Hallstatt

Proper noun

Hallstatt

1. A village in Salzkammergut, Austria, known historically for the production of salt.
2. The Hallstatt culture of the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age.

Derived terms

• Hallstattian

German

Etymology

The second element is Statt (“place, stead”).

Traditionally the first element is taken to be a borrowing from Celtic for ‘salt’, such as Welsh halen or Breton holen; see Proto-Celtic *salanos.

David Stifter rejects the traditional etymology because of several problems, among them:

1. the element hall- exists only in names of places settled by Germanic speakers (and nowhere else in the Celtic-speaking areas),
2. the *s > *h sound change is not attested in Continental Celtic,
3. derivation from the ‘salt’ word would have given a non-geminated final l.

He instead derives it from Proto-Germanic *hallą, from Proto-Indo-European *kHlnom (“hardened skin, encrustation”), referring to encrusted salt forming during the simmering of brine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhalˌʃtat/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Hall‧statt

Proper noun

Hallstatt n (proper noun, genitive Hallstatts or (optionally with an article) Hallstatt)

1. A municipality of Upper Austria, Austria