Über den Ortsnamen Schiebock

Abstract

On the Place Name “Schiebock”

The second name “Schiebock” for the town of Bischofswerda was developed in the 20th century as a playful abbreviation of the real place name. This kind of process can also be demonstrated in relation to other four-syllabled place names in Upper Lusatia. There is no evidence of the influence of Sorbian on the formation of the name Schiebock. There is also no firm historical evidence of a popular etymological derivation of the name from the use of pushcarts, nor of a linguistic derivation from a fictitious Sorbian place name Přibok. There is no need to claim that there was a Sorbian village of Přibok on the banks of the Wesenitz, and as a result the problem of the handing down of the name, not documented until 1973, disappears. The connection to the pushcart, as a subsidiary association, remains in place in the derivation presented, without there being an assumption that there is a connection to particular historical events in the history of the town.