Message: "Melibea, Melibeus"

Melibea, Melibeus

by Soul (guest)

8/3/2005, 5:11 AM

Can anyone tell me what the names Melibeus (m) and Melibea (f) mean (I strongly assume that they're the masculin and feminine forms of the same name)? I recently heard the name Melibea when I was watching the play Illusion by Corneille (it was one of the names of the leading lady), and I was just reading The Canterbury Tales and saw the name Melibeus in it. I'm not sure about their ethnic backrounds, because neither character's nationality was mentioned (they were both character is stories within stories). I think they're both very nice names. Does anyone know what they mean?

---Thanks! ^_^

#Melibea #Melibeus

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- Mina (blackapple) (guest)

8/15/2005, 12:37 PM

According to Adrian Room:

Meliboea- meli=honey, plus boe=cry, thus 'honey-tone, honey-voice.'

I assume Meliboeus would have bee a masculine name from the same derivations.

- Lumia +1

8/3/2005, 5:37 AM

Melibeus (and the feminine form Melibea) comes from the Greek Måëßâïéïò, Latinizated in Melibeus, and these from ìÝëù, "to concern, to take care", and âïõò, âïüò, "ox, cow, bull", with the meaning "the caretaker of ox".
Melibeus was the name of a shepherd in Virgil's Bucolics (1st century). The feminine Melibea was used by Fernando de Rojas in Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (more kwon as La Celestina) (1499).

Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com

- Soul (guest)

8/3/2005, 11:31 AM

Thanks! :)

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