The name of the Dnieper River has a deep historical roots that dates back to Scythian times. Ukrainian historian Alexander Alfyorov tells about it in his video on YouTube. According to him, the toponym originated more than two thousand years ago and reached our day almost unchanged, remaining testimony to ancient cultural layers in the territory of modern Ukraine.
The Scythians, the nomadic people who inhabited the southern part of Ukraine in the I millennium BC, used the language of the East Iranian group. It is the name "Dnipro". As Alfyorov explains, the word "DN" or "Dan" is translated as "water" and "APR" - "deep". That is, "Dnipro" can be interpreted as "great deep water" - an extremely accurate description of one of the most complete rivers in Europe.
The same language structures can be found in other places of Ukraine. For example, the Dniester from the same Iranian language group means "southern water". And the name of the Don River is "Great Water". This indicates the widespread prevalence and influence of ancient Iranian -speaking cultures on geographical names in Eastern Europe.
For millennia, the Dnieper had many other names. In the era of Kievan Rus he was called "Slavutich" - the river of Slavic glory. The ancient Greeks, which founded the colonies on the Black Sea coast, called it "Borysfen" - "river from the north". These names reflected not only geographical guidelines, but also the cultural contexts of the relevant era.
Knowledge about the true origin of the name of the Dnieper is important not only for specialists, but also for the wider public. They point to deep ethno -cultural ties of Ukrainian land with its ancient inhabitants. This is another proof that Ukraine has not only a rich history, but also deep roots in European civilization.
