I'm pretty sure Mark's right. The word 'Menhir' is pinched from French, which in turn pinched it from Breton (apparently 'Middle Breton').

What I'm not sure about is whether the word 'Menhirs' is technically correct from a Breton point of view. Adding an 's' to the end of a word to make the plural isn't very typical of the Celtic languages. It's far too simple!

Breton and Welsh are extremely similar in some respects. The Welsh equivalent of 'Menhir' is 'Maenhir', with 'maen' meaning stone and 'hir' meaning long (exactly the same as the Breton in meaning).

I'm still trying to establish what the plural of 'Maenhir' is in Welsh.

K x