Belinda

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A feminine first name of Italian origin, first recorded in Renaissance poetry and later popular in English-speaking countries
2. A girl's given name of Italian origin, taken from a character in a sixteenth-century epic poem
3. A woman's first name with Italian roots, made popular in English through literature and later common usage

Etymology: Belinda is a name, and its most striking fact is that it has been a common English given name only since Alexander Pope gave it to a character. In his mock-heroic poem The Rape of the Lock (1714), Pope named the heroine Belinda, and the name's popularity grew from there. Its appeal lies in the sound of "belle" dressed up in a Latinate ending. The name is built from two parts. The first is "belle," from French, Italian "bella," and related Romance words meaning "beautiful." The second, "-inda," is a Latinate form of the German "linde," meaning "soft," the same root that gives English "linden" (the lime tree) and "lithe." Put together, the name suggests something like "beautiful and gentle," though the pairing was a made-up construction rather than a traditional name with a long history. The name also gave the moon a nickname. Astronomers and writers sometimes call the moon "Belinda" after the poem's heroine, a playful echo of Pope's lines about her beauty.