The Târnava (full name in ro, Râul Târnava; hu, Küküllő; german: Kokel; tr, Kokul or Kokulu) is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

. It is formed by the confluence of the

Târnava Mare The Târnava Mare ("Great Târnava"; hu, Nagy-Küküllő; german: Große Kokel) is a river in Romania. Its total length is and its basin size is . Its source is in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, near the sources of the Mureș and Olt in H ...

and

Târnava Mică The Târnava Mică ("Small Târnava"; hu, Kis-Küküllő; german: Kleine Kokel) is a river in Romania. Its total length is , and its drainage basin area is . Its source is in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, in Harghita County. It flows to the ...

in the town of

Blaj Blaj (; archaically spelled as ''Blaș''; hu, Balázsfalva; german: Blasendorf; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Blußendref'') is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. It has a population of 20,630 inhabitants. The landmark of the city is the ...

. The Târnava flows into the Mureș after 23 km near the town of

Teiuș Teiuș (, german: Dreikirchen, Dornstadt; hu, Tövis) is a town in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania, with a population of 7,284 inhabitants. The town, declared as such in 1994, administers four villages: Beldiu (''Marosbéld''), Căpud (''Ma ...

. The two source rivers of the Târnava are the Târnava Mare and Târnava Mică, and its tributaries include the Tur, Izvorul Iezerului, Secaș, and the Dunărița. Its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

covers an area of .Analysis of the Tisza River Basin 2007
IPCDR

Etymology

The name Târnava is of Slavic origin from ''trn'',See Trnka,

Trnava Trnava (, german: Tyrnau; hu, Nagyszombat, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of a ''kraj'' (Trnava Region) and of an ''okres'' (Trnava ...

, etc. meaning "

thorn Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Comi ...

". Other proposed origins for the river's Romanian name is ''Turn'' (tower) + ''dav'' from Dacian ''dava'' (structure/fortress), i.e. "the river that flows amongst towers and ''davas''"; or a reference to the Romanian city of

Turda Turda (; hu, Torda, ; german: link=no, Thorenburg; la, Potaissa) is a city in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in the southeastern part of the county, from the county seat, Cluj-Napoca, to which it is connected by the Europe ...

, forming ''Tur'' + ''ava'' from ''dava''. ''Trn'' (thorn) is used by Slavic peoples in the Balkans, but the 60% R1a Slavs (Poles, Belarusians, Russians) say ''syp/ship''. The Hungarian name Küküllő is of

Old Turkic Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic language, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested form of the Turkic languages, found in Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions dating from about the eighth to the 13th century. It is the ...

origin from ''kukel'' meaning

sloe ''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania ...

, and is thought to have originated from the Avar people. , File:Prunus spinosa 002.jpg , alt2=Prunus spinosa , Küküllő hu, kökényes

References

Rivers of Alba County Place names of Slavic origin in Romania Rivers of Romania {{Alba-river-stub