Oberon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The king of the fairies in folklore and literature, best known as a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream ; a small natural satellite that orbits the planet Uranus
2. A mythical monarch of the fairy realm, famously featured in Shakespeare's comedy of midsummer lovers ; one of the outer moons circling the seventh planet from the sun
3. The fairy ruler found in medieval romance and Shakespearean drama ; a icy moon that revolves around Uranus and is among its largest satellites

Etymology: Oberon, the fairy king of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," owes his name to a medieval German elf. The name began as Alberich, a figure in Germanic legend, and it passed through Old French as Alberon before English took it up as Auberon. The German name joins "alp," a supernatural creature of the mountains and night, with "rich," meaning ruler, so it literally means "elf king" or "fairy king." The French form reached English in that spelling, and the initial "A" was later dropped, leaving the modern Oberon. The name's journey reveals a neat piece of translation. Old French Alberon is described as a partial loan translation of the German, meaning the French speakers adapted the name partly by rendering its parts into their own forms rather than simply copying the sound. Because of this, the name travelled across medieval Europe with its meaning intact, so that "elf king" was always visible inside it.