An interesting place name is Oederquart. First mentioned in 1331 as Oderkort. Subsequently, as Oderquerd (1332-1333), Oderchurt (1345) and then Oderquord. The suffix -quart is supposed to indicate a hill. What kind of a hill? Well, Oderick’s hill. Hence Oederquart (or Odericks Wurt). But this seems to be folk etymology. The suffix has – quart seems rather to indicate something slightly different, namely, a ford. Why the “q”? Compare this with the German word queren or durchqueren, literally, “to cross” and “to cross over.” Such names appear in many places – for example, Franfurt and so forth. So is there a river next to the town? Usually, there is. But here we have a big one. Specifically, the Elbe. Which raises a question: why is there an Oder-furt on the Elbe? An answer could be that the Elbe was known as Oder before it became the Elbe. As tribes moved eastwards (or were pushed, perhaps by the by the Romans, eastwards), they transferred their Oder name to the next big river over – today’s Odra. This would also provide an etymology for the name of the Obodrites – “the people who live between – obieodry – both/the two Odras”. The original name of today’s Odra river could, in turn, have been moved eastwards and applied to the next big river East – today’s Vistula.
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No no Torino – this is not a Verschiebung! Oede-r is the genitive of the female noun Oede – wasteland! So a crossing in the wilderness and nothing more. “Verschiebung” is an exaggeration, the more so because you still have a marsh of the same name there, and these areas were to live only after the construction of dike on the Elbe.
Maybe that is right. But maybe not. After all, a crossing of what? Surely not a crossing of the waste. Was that area even a wasteland ever? It’s right at the mouth of the river. So, a crossing of the river fits better – in my judgment. Note that the name appears with an “o” with no sign of umlaut. Even the official explanation talks about Oderick (not Oederick).