Adelard

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A twelfth-century English scholar from Bath known for translating Arabic and Greek works into Latin and spreading mathematical learning across Europe
2. A medieval English scholar and translator from the city of Bath who brought Arabic and Greek science and philosophy to Latin readers
3. The name of a twelfth-century English natural philosopher from Bath who translated Euclid and other Arabic and Greek texts into Latin

Etymology: In Medieval Latin, "Adelardus" was a personal name, and English took the word from that source. The name itself was a Latinized form of an older Germanic name, and its parts are usually read as "noble" and "hardy" or "brave." A name that once belonged to a single person has, in this case, become a common noun. Because the word began as a proper name, its history is tied to the people who carried it rather than to a root that describes a thing. Most of its meaning is therefore bound up with that naming tradition, which passed through the Latin of medieval scholars and clerics before reaching English.