[Facts] Re: Adosinda
in reply to a message by overtheclouds
I have the name Gumersinda in my own database with quite a similar background, early Spain, which turned out to be a (Visi)Gothic name, with a second name element of sinth (Gothic for "way, journey", with the same ultimate root as the English word "to send").
I don't know about the first name element, though.
I don't know about the first name element, though.
Replies
The first element of Adosinda is probably derived from Gothic "audo", equivalent to OE "ead" wealth, property, a popular prototheme found in names such as Edward, Edwin, Edmund, Odoacer etc.. The second element is as Rene says a derivation of Gothic sinths (High German sind, English sith — the a at the end is properly an example of the oblique case). Sinths/sind/sith is in widespread use throught the Germanic languages with the same wide variety of meanings. The primary sense seems to refer to duration or extent of time or distance, from which in all the languages are derived senses relating to travel, distance, time and frequency (three sith= three times). It survives in English in the abbreviated compound "since" (sith-hence). In onomastic use the sense seems to be that of travel of journey, of which there are a whole class of deuterothemes, icluding fær (fare), fæt (journey, path), lida (traveller), wæȝ (way), waþ (wandering).
Thank you all