View Message

Dithematic names don't work like that. they don't create compounds with a new meaning, each element stands on it's own. It's possible Geno- means "family/kin" taken from Celtic or Latin, but probably more likely it is the Frankish version of Gain-, of uncertain meaning. The deuterotheme -waif also has no clear meaning. it does not, however, mean "woman" (the coincidental weib spelling is unique to modern German, and was /i/ in Middle and old High German and the cognate languages (curiously the word in Bavarian becomes Baib)). It is possible that -wefa ia a Latinization of -wifa, "woman", but the combination of Gallo-Roman Geno- and Frankish wifa (not otherwise recorded as a name element) into Genovefa would imply that name was newly fabricated in the vita for it's sense of allegory (in the same way that her aunt is named Lutetia; i.e. Paris).

This message was edited 7/29/2020, 4:52 PM