Of Pech and “ac”

Like your favourite campsite, Pech Charmant, many place names, villages and family names in Périgord are made up of ‘pech’ or ‘ac’.

‘Pech’ is the French transcription of the Occitan pueg (hence the Spanish puig and Catalan pujol), itself taken from the Latin podium: a flat, elevated place (our French “podium”). And by extension, an estate situated on high ground.

The suffix ‘ac’ is also a Gallo-Roman heritage, more specifically Gallic.

Acos, acum designated a place, an area and then, by extension, a farm.

Associated with the owner’s surname, it was used to describe the property. In Roman Gaul, the word indicated the location of a villa, a rural residence and farm characteristic of the Empire, comprising dwellings and farm buildings.

Montignac, Beynac, Carsac, Salignac… there’s no doubt that the multitude of villages in the region have their roots in the properties of Romanised Gaul.

Their roots are to be found in the vast cultural heritage of the langue d’Oc which, in the Middle Ages, was spoken and covered the southern part of what is now France (as opposed to the langue d’Oï in the north).

Largely inherited from Latin, the complex language of the troubadours has given today’s French many of its words. Coming to Pech Charmant is quite a journey!