Pamela

Part of speech: noun, proper noun

Definitions

1. A personal name commonly used as a given name for females, originating from a literary work by Sir Philip Sidney
2. A character in various stories, often depicted with charm and intelligence
3. A term representing a person with a cheerful disposition and nurturing qualities

Etymology: Sir Philip Sidney, the Elizabethan poet and courtier, gave the name to English literature when he invented it for a character in "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia," a pastoral romance written around 1593. Before that, the name did not exist in the language, so readers of the book were meeting something entirely new: a name built from nothing that they then adopted for real children. Sidney's Pamela is a shepherdess, and the name seems to have been created from scratch rather than borrowed from an older word or a saint's name. Some have imagined a hidden Greek origin, combining "pas" meaning "all" with "meli" meaning "honey," which would make it a sweet, all-embracing name. There is no evidence Sidney intended this, so it remains a guess rather than a documented source.

Synonyms: Pamela (female given name)