Wouri. The original name of a river in Central Africa,
renamed Rio dos Camarões («River of Shrimps») by the Portuguese.
The length of the
riverbed is 160 kilometers. It flows through the territory of the Wouri and
Nkam departments of the Coastal Region of Cameroon. It flows into the Gulf of
Biafra (part of the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf of Guinea).
The hydronym Wouri contains an ancient international
and substratum in origin, i.e. inherited from former ethno-language states, the
root hydronymic component *vur, *uer, which had a complex of meanings – «water»,
«river» and «twist», «spin», «sound», which is connected with the understanding
of flowing water as a living, animated being.
© A. F. Rogalev. Hydronymic Encyclopaedia. Origin of names of water
objects. Part 1. Gomel: Velagor, 2023.
