Griselda
English
Alternative forms
- Grissel, Grizel
Etymology
From the Old English elements *gris (“gray”) + hild (“battle”), meaning “gray battle-maid”.
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Proper noun
Griselda
- The long-suffering wife of a nobleman in a medieval tale.
- A female given name from the Germanic languages used in Middle Ages, but rather rare today.
Noun
Griselda (plural Griseldas)
- A woman of exemplary gentleness and patience.
- 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer; Nevill Coghill, transl., “Chaucer's Envoy to the Clerk's Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977:
- Husbands, be not so hardy as to assail
The patience of your wives in hope to find
Griseldas, for you certainly will fail.
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Derived terms
- Zelda
Anagrams
- glaresid