About the meanings of Zurrieq, Wied iz-Zurrieq and Wied iz-Zerqa

Abstract

In his pioneer work on Maltese place-names, Professor J. Aquilina briefly mentions Zurrieq and neighbouring Wied iz-Zurrieq in Malta, as well as Wied iz-Zerqa, near Ras San Dimitri in Gozo. Without, in this case, offering etymologies of his own, Professor Aquilirla quotes two other authors. The former, the 17th century Maltese writer Abela, says, with respect to Zurrieq, "che tanto significa quanto azzurro, o ceruleo, che si rende cosi a gl'occhi de riguardanti quel mare per sua profondita, da che venne a chiamarsi da gli Arabi Ezrak". E.H. Palmer, the latter, does not concern himself with Malta, but lists in his "Survey of Western Palestine", published in 1881, a Wadi ez-Zerqa, which he translates as "the valley of the blue water" , thus giving an interesting parallel to Gozo's Wied iz-Zerqa. Strikingly enough, Abela and Palmer agree in interpreting zurrieq and zerqa as substantives derived from the same meaning of the root ZRQ, i.e. "blueness".