Margaret
English
Margaret River (Kimberley) in flood
Etymology
From the name of a legendary third century saint, from Middle English Margaret, from Old French Margaret (French Marguerite), from Latin Margarita, from Ancient Greek μαργαρίτης (margarítēs, “pearl”), ultimately from an Indo-Iranian source.
The same source, through folk etymology, has produced Old English meregrot (“pearl”, literally “stone or pebble of the sea”), related to Old Saxon merigrita, merigriota (“pearl”), Old High German merigrioz, equivalent to mer- + groat.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈmɑːɡɹɪt/, /ˈmɑːɡəɹɪt/, /-ət/
Audio (Berkshire, UK) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /ˈmɑɹɡɹɪt/, /ˈmɑɹɡəɹɪt/, /-ət/
Proper noun
Margaret (countable and uncountable, plural Margarets)
- A female given name from Ancient Greek.
- 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene v]:
- Margaret shall now be queen, and rule the king;
But I will rule both her, the king, and realm.
- 1830 Mary Russell Mitford: Our Village: Cottage Names:
- Margaret, Marguerite - the pearl! the daisy! Oh name of romance and of minstrelsy, which brings the days of chivalry to mind, and the worship of flowers and ladies fair!
- 1868 Bentley's Miscellany, London. p.417:
- Amongst us English, the name is a greater favourite than with any other nation: but we have played upon it, and abused it oftener too. In no language does Margaret sound sweeter or homelier than in ours: not so Mag, Maggie, Meg, Madge, Moggie, Peg, Peggy, and abominable Piggy, of which abridgements only the two first are defensible.
- 2012, Louise Erdrich, The Round House, Corsair, published 2013, →ISBN, page 292:
- The girls from our year were mainly named some version of Shawn. There was Shawna, Dawna, Shawnee, Dawnali, Shalana, and just plain Dawn and Shawn. There was also a girl named Margaret, named after her grandmother, who worked at the post office. I ended up talking with Margaret.
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- A river in southwestern Western Australia, presumed named for a cousin of John Garrett Bussell, founder of Busselton.
- A river in Kimberley, Western Australia, named for its European discoverer's sister-in-law.
- (astronomy) A moon of Uranus, named for a character in Much Ado About Nothing. [Discovered 2003]
- 2009, Richard Schmude, Jr., Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto and How to Observe Them, page 58,
- Astronomers discovered nine small moons lying outside the orbit of Oberon (Francisco, Caliban, Stephano, Trinculo, Sycorax, Margaret, Prospero, Setebos, and Ferdinand) between 1997 and 2003.
- 2012, Peter Bond, Exploring the Solar System, page 297,
- The odd one out is Margaret, which travels in a "normal" prograde direction, though it has the most eccentric orbit of all the Uranian satellites.
- 2013, David A. J. Seargent, Weird Worlds: Bizarre Bodies of the Solar System and Beyond, page 225,
- […] moons known to be moving in a prograde or direct orbit is Margaret, orbiting Uranus at an average distance of nearly nine million miles (14,845,000 km) in an orbit that currently exceeds all other Solar System moons in terms of eccentricity (0.7979). […] Margaret takes about 4.6 Earth years to complete a single orbit of the planet.
- 2009, Richard Schmude, Jr., Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto and How to Observe Them, page 58,
Derived terms
- Margaret River (town, winegrowing region)
- St Margarets
- St Margaret's at Cliffe
- Stratton St Margaret
- Tivetshall St Margaret
Related terms
common nouns
- margarine
- margarita
- margarite
- Margherita, margherita
- marguerite
variants and pet forms of the given name
- Greta
- Gretchen
- Madge
- Mae
- Maggie
- Mags
- Maisie
- Margaery
- Marge
- Margery
- Margie
- Margo
- Margot
- Marguerite
- Marjorie
- Marjory
- May
- Meg
- Megan
- Meggie
- Megs
- Peg
- Peggy
- Rita
Translations
female given name
|
moon of Uranus
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See also
- Daisy
- Pearl
- marguerite
- moggy
Anagrams
- teragram
Cebuano
Etymology
From English Margaret, from the name of a legendary third century saint, borrowed from Old French Margaret, from Latin Margarita, from Ancient Greek μαργαρίτης (margarítēs, “pearl”).
Proper noun
Margaret
- a female given name from Ancient Greek
- (astronomy) a moon of Uranus
Estonian
Proper noun
Margaret
- a female given name of modern usage. Borrowed from English or shortened from Margareeta
Norwegian
Alternative forms
- Margareth
Proper noun
Margaret
- a female given name borrowed from English, most used in the mid-twentieth century