Gwynnever

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The queen who married King Arthur in Arthurian legend and whose affair with Lancelot helped bring about the downfall of the Round Table
2. A legendary medieval queen, the wife of King Arthur, known for her romance with the knight Lancelot
3. In Arthurian romance, the consort of King Arthur whose love affair with Sir Lancelot is central to the tragedy of the court at Camelot

Etymology: Guinevere, King Arthur's queen in the legends, is rooted in a Welsh name, "Gwenhwyfar," which is usually taken to mean "white phantom" or "white fairy," from "gwen" (white, fair) and a second element of uncertain sense. The name reached English through Old French, where Chrétien de Troyes and other twelfth-century writers gave it the spelling "Guenièvre," and the "Gwynnever" form seen here is an older English variant, while the modern "Guinevere" settled in through later Middle English and Old French usage. Her role is the surprising part. In the earliest Welsh and Latin sources she is not a queen at all, and her oldest appearances are barely developed. The character was shaped into the famous adulterous wife of Arthur, whose affair with Lancelot brings down the Round Table, largely by French romance writers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and that version is the one English readers mostly know.