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[Facts] Adosinda
Does anyone know the meaning or origin of the name Adosinda? It was the name of an 8th-century queen of Asturias, Spain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adosinda
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Adosinda is the feminine form of Adosindo, a name formed by the germanic elements “hadu” (”hathus”) and “-sindo” (“-sint” or “swint”), meaning "battle" and "powerful", respectively. Source: http://www.ciberduvidas.com/pergunta.php?id=18662

This message was edited 8/9/2012, 7:08 PM

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Yes, a second element "powerful" seems more plausible than the "journey" that I had so far in my own database.The Gothic word is swinþs "strong". The English word sound in the sense of "healthy" and the German word geschwind for "fast" have the same root:
http://www.nordicnames.de/wiki/SWIND
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=sound
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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.
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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).
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Thank you all
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