The exact origin of the name of the city of Oryol is unknown, but there are at least two interesting hypotheses. Whether any of them are true is unknown. But they are quite beautiful.
Instructions
Step 1
The initiative to create a city that had not yet received a name in 1566 was put forward by Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who ruled at that time. The noun “city” itself comes from the adjective “fenced off”, and then this term was understood literally, surrounding cities from all sides with fortress walls. It was possible to take the city only "horizontally", because aviation did not exist, and the walls turned out to be very reliable protection. They were built from various materials, and in this case it was decided to make them oak, fortunately, there were enough trees of the corresponding species nearby.
Step 2
Well, where there are trees, there are birds. They reluctantly leave their occupied places, but if trees are cut down, even large birds have to fly away. According to the first hypothesis, one of them turned out to be a handsome eagle. Some of the lumberjacks half-jokingly called him the owner of the place where the city was built. The king, who was present, liked this statement and decided to name the city after the bird. So a new toponym appeared - "Eagle".
Step 3
According to the second hypothesis, the city is named after the river on which it is based. In various sources, she is called Eagle, Orley, Orel, and when they began to build the city, she already bore these toponyms. Only in 1784, more than two centuries after the foundation of the city, it received its modern name - Orlik.
Step 4
The origin of the name of the river itself is also not known exactly, but experts associate it with the Tatar word "op", which can be translated into Russian as "ditch" (in modern Tatar, "ditch" - "ozyn chokyr"). Well, "yol" (in modern Tatar - "yul", which is very similar, there is also a synonym - "kyimmәt") is translated from the same Tatar language as "road".
Step 5
And if you combine these two words, you get not a "ditch-road" at all, but "a road that crosses the ditch, perpendicular to it." The modern name of the river - Orlik - also has a Tatar origin. It means "an object suitable for the construction of a ditch, alteration into a ditch." And the river fits this definition quite well.
