Loire (the longest river in France, passing (from southeast to northwest) through the departments of Ardèche, Haute-Loire, Loire, Saône-et-Loire, Allier, Nièvre, Cher, Loiret, Loir-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire, Maine-et-Loire and Loire-Atlantique); Loire (a department of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France)
Related: Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, Cosne-sur-Loire, Haute-Loire, La Celle-sur-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, Tracy-sur-Loire, Val de Loire
Inherited from Latin Liger, itself borrowed from the native Gaulish name of the river, from *liga (“silt, sediment, deposit, alluvium”) (see also French lie, English lees), from Proto-Celtic *legyā, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie, lay”), the same source as many words in English such as lie, ledge, etc.