Know the Etymology: 456
Place Name of the Day: Saturday, 27 February 2016

Goluwaawa

கொ₃லுவாவ
Goluvāva

Golu+wa+wa

The thicket or jungle

Golu

thicket, jungle, “Gulmaya, Læhæba” (Sinhala, Sorata); multitude, “Samoohaya, Kalaapaya” (Sinhala, Sorata); 1. Sorata traces to Golla: grove, forest (Sinhala, Clough); Kollai: forest, cultivation land in cleared forest (Tamil, Changkam diction); grove, backyard garden (Tamil, MTL); Kaal: forest (Tamil, DED 1418); lock of hair in plaiting (Tami, DED 1482); Kæla: multitude (Sinhala); Kæle: jungle (Sinhala); Choalai: grove (Tamil, DED 2891); Gulan: a hillside having big trees (Sinhala, Sorata); Thoalai, Oalai, Ollai: thicket, jungle, grove (Eezham Tamil place names); Oluwa: seems to mean a forest as in Hal-oluwa (Sinhala place names); 2. Gulma: clump of trees (Sanskrit, non-Aryan origin suggested, CDIAL 4217). See columns on Pol-golla, Naayiniyaar-kollai, Kos-gulana, Thoalai-kaddi, Veeraich-choalai and Maanel-o'luwa

Goluwa is a rarely found Sinhala place name component.

According to Sorata, Golu means a thicket, scrub jungle or a bushy place. Gulmaya and Læhæba are the words used by him to explain Golu, while he traces the etymology to another Sinhala word Golla, meaning a jungle or grove.

Golla is a cognate of Kollai in Tamil (Changkam diction), meaning a forest or grove. Other related parallels are Kaal in Tamil/ Dravidian (DED 1418) and Kæle in Sinhala, meaning a forest.

The Sanskrit cognate Gulma, meaning a clump of trees is traced to non-Aryan origin (CDIAL 4217).

In certain other Sinhala place names, Goluwa seems to have lost the initial G and has taken the form Oluwa (see column on Maanel-oluwa). This is comparable to Kollai becoming Ollai in some Eezham Tamil place names (see column on Thoalai-kaddi).

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Goluwaawa is a place in Wariyapola division of Kurunegala district.

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Some related place names:

Go'luwaa-mulla: The thicket or jungle corner; Elpitiya division, Galle district. Go'lu/ Go'luwaa also means short, “Mittaa” (Sinhala, Sorata); Ku'l'lam: shortness (Tamil, DED 1839); Ku'l'lu: shortness (Kannada, DED 1839)

First published: Saturday, 27 February 2016, 15:48