The word _sil_ in river-names would seem to have the meaning of still or sluggish water. The Gael. has _sil_, to drop, rain, drip; and the Arm. has _sila_, to filter. (The Old Fries. _sil_, canal, seems hardly a related word; it appears more probably to be connected with Old Norse _sîla_, to cut, to furrow.) According to Pliny, the Scythian name of the Tanais or Don was Silis; and several other Scythian rivers had the same name, (_Grimm, Gesch. d. Deutsch. Sprach._) In this point of view the above derivation might seem too restricted, and we might think of _sil_, as of _sal_, (p. 75), as formed by the prefix _s_ from the root _al_ or _il_, to go, (p. 71), in the simple meaning of water. According to Strabo and Pliny the Silaris of Italy had the property of petrifying any plant thrown into it; but as, according to Cluvier, the modern inhabitants of its banks know nothing of any such property, it would rather seem as if the story had been made to fit the supposed connection of the name with _silex_, flint. 1. _Switzerland._ SIL(AHA), 11th cent. The SIHL. _Italy._ SILIS ant., now the SILE. _Scotland._ The SHIEL in Argyleshire--here? _Germany._ The SCHYL (ant. Tiarantus)--here? 2. _With the ending en._ _Sweden._ SILJAN. Lake. _Russia._ The SHELON--here? 3. _With the ending er._ _Naples._ SILARIS ant., now the SILARO. The form _silv_ I take to be an extension of _sil_, similar to others previously noticed. 1. _Russia._ The SILVA. Gov. Perm. 2. _With the ending er._ _England._ The SILVER. Devon. The SIMOIS in the Plain of Troy I have suggestively placed at p. 119 to Gael. _saimh_, slow, tranquil. But, taking the epithet _lubricus_ applied to it by Horace, we might perhaps seek a stronger sense from the same root, as found in Welsh _seimio_, to grease, _saim_, tallow. The water of the LIPARIS in Cilicia, according to Polyclitus, as quoted by Pliny, was of such an unctuous quality that it was used in place of oil. Probably only for the purpose of anointing the person, to which extent the story is confirmed by Vitruvius. Hence no doubt its name, from Sansc. _lip_, to be greasy, Gr. λιπαρος, unctuous. Grimm (_Gesch. d. Deutsch. Sprach._) suggests a similar origin for the Ister, p. 117, referring it to Old Norse _istra_, Dan. _ister_, fat, grease, Gr. στέαρ. He puts it, however, in a metaphorical sense, as "the fattening, fructifying river." With deference, however, to so high an authority, this explanation seems to me rather doubtful. For the ending _ster_, as I have elsewhere observed, is common to many river-names, and I have taken it to be, like the Arm. _ster_, formed by a phonetic _t_, from the Sansc. _sri_, to flow.