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Introduction

The Celtic word *dūnom: "hill fort" was borrowed into Germanic twice, once as "hill" and once as "fort".

The first time was borrowed before the completion of Grimm's Law, so Grimm's Law changed the *d to *t for Germanic *tūną: "enclosure", which eventually gave English "town".

The second time appears to have been a borrowing specifically from Gaulish into West Germanic, after each family had split into subfamilies and Grimm's law was no longer active, so we get West Germanic *dūnǭ: "hill". This gives English "down", meaning "a hill"; and eventually "down" the direction, which comes from the compound adūne/ofdūne meaning "off the hill, downhill".

While some sources list the PIE root *dʰewH- as an origin, I don't know of any good evidence for this as a root and not just a Proto-Celtic word *dūnom, except for a possible connection to Latin funus, which would still not be enough to push it all the way back to PIE.

Teaser

down, town, downtown, Donegal

Full Text

• Proto-Indo-European *dʰewH-?

  • Proto-Indo-European *dʰuHnom enclosure

    • Celtic *dūnom hill fort, rampart

      • Brythonic *din hill fort, hill

        • Welsh din fort
      • Old Irish dún fort, fortress

        • Irish dún fort, fortress, refuge, haven

          • Irish Dún na nGall Fort of Foreigners, Donegal

            • English Donegal
      • Gaulish dunum hill fort, fortress, fortified town

        • Latin Dunum

          • Old High German Tuno

            • German Thun
        • Gaulish Cambodunum Crooked-Fort

          • Latin Cambodunum

            • Old High German

              • German Kempten
        • Gaulish Eburodunum Yew-Fort

          • Latin Ebredunum

            • Western Romance

              • French Yverdon
        • Gaulish Lugdunum Fort of (the god) Lugh ^[1]

          • Latin Lugdūnum

            • Western Romance

              • Old French

                • French Lyon
                • English Lyons
            • Latin Gallia Lugdūnēnsis
        • Gaulish Lugidunum Fort of the Lugians

          • Latin Lignitium

            • Polish Legnica
        • Gaulish Verodunum Strong-Fort

          • Latin Virodūnum

            • Western Romance

              • French Verdun
        • West Germanic *dūnǭ hill

          • Old English dūn

            • English down
            • Old English ofdūne off the hill, downhill

              • Old English adūne

                • English down

                  • English downtown
          • Frankish

            • Middle Dutch dûne

              • Dutch duin
              • French dune dune

                • English dune
          • Old Saxon *dūna

            • German Düne dune
      • Germanic *tūną enclosure

        • North Germanic

          • Old Norse tún enclosure, courtyard, farmyard, farmstead

            • Icelandic tún hayfield
        • West Germanic

          • Old English tūn enclosure, garden, homestead, town

            • English town

              • English downtown
            • Scots toun town, village, farmstead
            • Old English -tun

              • English -ton

                • English Newton

                  • Translingual newton
          • Frankish tūn

            • Dutch tuin garden, yard
          • Old High German zūn

            • German Zaun fence
        • Slavic *tynъ fence, enclosure

          • East Slavic

            • Russian тын tyn fence
          • South Slavic

            • Serbo-Croatian tin
          • West Slavic

            • Polish tyn
  • Proto-Indo-European *dʰuHnos enclosed?, complete?

    • Italic *fūnos burial mound??

      • Latin funus death, funeral

        • Latin fūnerālis of a funeral, funereal

          • Western Romance

            • French funérailles funeral

              • English funeral
            • Italian funerale funeral
            • Spanish funeral funeral

Visual

Collected English words

Donegal, Lyons, down, downtown, dune, town, -ton, Newton, newton, funeral

Footnotes

1. ^

   Lugdunum is sometimes also given as origin of London, but that doesn't stand up to reconstruction. Comparison of the Latin, Old English, and Welsh names of London point towards a Celtic reconstruction looking more like *Londonjon, possibly meaning "sunken (or flooded) place".