Omiš

Omiš (pronounced [ɔ̌miːʃ]) is a town and port in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and a municipality in the Split-Dalmatia County. The town is approximately 25 kilometres (16 miles) south-east of Croatia's second largest city, Split, where the Cetina River meets the Adriatic Sea. In 2021, the municipality had a population of 14,139.

Name

It is supposed that the name of this city, Omiš, developed from the Slavic Holm, Hum as a translation from the Illyrian - Greek word Onaion, Oneon, meaning "hill" or "place on the hill", or from Greek onos (όνος) meaning donkey, perhaps from the shape of the rocky promontory by the city (naming a city after a natural form was common practice then, as it is now); there is also the possibility that the name of the settlement Onaeum was derived from the name of the river which was called Nestos by the Greek colonists in its lower flow, during Antiquity. According to Petar Šimunović, Omiš is derived from Proto-Indo-European *almissa ("rock", "cliff").

Latin names during Ancient Rome were Onaeum, Oeneum, Alminium, and Almissum. During medieval times the name was recorded as Olmissium, Almiyssium and from the end of the 15th century, when the city fell to the authority of Venetian Republic, its name was the Italian Almissa.

History

Omiš was well known in the past by the Corsairs of Almissa (Omiški gusari) whose Sagittas (ships) (Genitive case: Sagittae, translated as The Arrow), brought fame to them because they were built for attack and fast retrieval into the mouth of the Cetina River, protecting the town from foreign invaders. At a very early date, neighbours of the Corsairs of Almissa, the highlanders of the Poljica Principality (Poljička Republika), became their friends and allies. This allowed them to harass the seaborne trade, without fear of a sudden attack from inland.