ABSTRACT
Pliny thought that the name “Druid” was a Greek appellation derived from the Druidic cult of the oak https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315828220/628bb631-b388-4807-85cf-7a6de54640b2/content/fig20-1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>. 1 The word, however, is purely Celtic, and its meaning probably implies that, like the sorcerer and medicine-man everywhere, the Druid was regarded as “the knowing one.” It is composed of two parts—dru-y regarded by M. D'Arbois as an intensive, and vids, from vid, “to know,” or “see.” 2 Hence the Druid was “the very knowing or wise one.” It is possible, however, that dru- is connected with the root which gives the word “oak” in Celtic speech—Gaulish deruo, Irish dair, Welsh derw—and that the oak, occupying a place in the cult, was thus brought into relation with the name of the priesthood. The Gaulish form of the name was probably druis, the Old Irish was drai. The modern forms in Irish and Scots Gaelic, drui and draoi, mean “sorcerer.ȍ
