Guggenheim

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A surname borne by a wealthy philanthropic family ; a modern art museum named after that family ; a fellowship grant given to scholars and artists
2. A family name borne by famous mining-fortune philanthropists ; an art museum of modern works bearing that name ; a grant awarded to researchers and creative artists
3. The surname of influential American philanthropists ; a modern art museum founded by that family ; a prestigious award funding scholarly and artistic projects

Etymology: "Guggenheim" began as a place name before it became a family name. Several villages in the German-speaking lands bore names built from a personal name and "heim," an Old High German word meaning "home," and the surname is traced to Gougenheim in Alsace or to Jugenheim in Hesse. The first element may come from the Germanic personal name Gogo or Gogon, so the sense of the whole is roughly "Gogo's home," a settlement belonging to a man of that name. The name passed from a village to the families who took their identity from it. As a Jewish surname, it was carried by people who had moved away from those original places, so the word now refers to a family rather than to the land it once described. Most readers meet it today as a surname attached to the New York museum and the family foundations that bear it.