Cassie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A feminine given name, often used as a short form of Cassandra, Catherine or Cassidy
2. A girl's first name commonly shortened from longer names such as Cassandra or Katherine
3. A familiar feminine personal name, frequently a nickname derived from Cassandra or Catherine

Etymology: "Cassie" is a word for a flowering shrub or tree, and it was borrowed from French, where "cassie" names the same plant. Its close relative is "acacia": the two words are doublets, meaning they came into English by separate routes from the same ancestor, so one arrived through everyday French speech and the other through a more learned path straight from Latin and Greek. The pairing is a reminder that a single plant can pick up several names as it moves between languages. English took "acacia" from the classical world of botanists and scholars, while "cassie" arrived in a more familiar form, and the two now sit side by side as different-sounding names for related things.