Why are the Basques called the Basques? Baskijski, Baskický, Baskisk, Vasco, Baskilainen, Baskisch, βασκικός, Vasco, Baskijski, Bass, баскский. All of the names for the Basques are similar and seemingly have nothing to do with what the Basques actually call themselves, Euskaldunak. Where does the word Basque even come from?

• The English word Basque comes from the French, which in turn comes from the Gascon word Basco. In fact, both Basque and Gascon come from the Latin word for one of the tribes that inhabited what is the modern day Basque Country, the Vascones. In Latin, the word was originally uasco.
• There was a theory that the Latin word for the Basques evolved from the Latin word for forest – boscus o buscus – but that has been discarded as that word itself is of relatively modern origin (the Middle Ages) and maybe comes from German.
• Another theory is that uasco came from what the Basques and Aquitainians called themselves, from an early form of the modern Basque eusk-. The Romans called another tribe in the region the Auscii, which is theorized to have a similar origin.
• Yet another theory links the word Basque to an inscription found on an old Roman-era coin that read barscunes. This has been interpreted as a Celtic word possibly meaning “the mountain people.”
• Strabo, the Greek chronicler of the Roman Empire, called what was possibly (likely?) that same tribe as the Vascones the Ouaskonous or the Ouáskones. This is what the Greeks called them, the Οὐάσκωνες. Ouaskonous means the “goat people” as these people were known to sacrifice rams to their gods. Ouaskonous is typically rendered in English as Vasconians.
• At least two references link the Latin uasco with the Greek Ouaskonous, but the vast majority don’t – even the Oxford Dictionary doesn’t make this connection.
• Just like the theory that uasco comes from eusk-, there is speculation that so does Ouaskonous.
• It is surprisingly hard to find serious discussion of these relationships. For example, while multiple sources say that Ouaskonous means something like “the goat people,” I can’t find conclusive evidence of this.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Vascones, Wikipedia; Basques, Wikipedia