 Modern historians explain the etymology of the word "Luxembourg" as coming from the word "Letze", meaning fortification, which might have referred to either the remains of a Roman watchtower or a primitive refuge of the Early Middle Ages.By the 959 partition of Lotharingia, the Luxembourg region had passed to Duke Frederick I of Upper Lorraine of the Ardennes-Verdun dynasty, a son of Count Palatine Wigeric of Lotharingia.In 963, Count Siegfried, probably a younger brother of Duke Frederick I, purchased some land from Abbot Wikerus of Saint Maximin's in Trier.