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ArchivesAlmodis, Adalmode
I found the name Almodie painted on the wall of a French castle family tree, strangely enough. Researching it came up with variants Almodis and Almodys, but the most common seems to be Almodis. I've been scratching my head on its origin for a while and I think I finally found something.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almodis_de_la_Marche
It seems that another name for the earliest bearer I found was Adalmode. Is this related to Germanic Adalmut? Maybe Adalmund? The first element in Adalmode does seem to be Ancient Germanic adal (noble).
Would Almodis be a contraction or variant of Adalmode, maybe Provençal or Occitan influenced, or a separate name?
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almodis_de_la_Marche
It seems that another name for the earliest bearer I found was Adalmode. Is this related to Germanic Adalmut? Maybe Adalmund? The first element in Adalmode does seem to be Ancient Germanic adal (noble).
Would Almodis be a contraction or variant of Adalmode, maybe Provençal or Occitan influenced, or a separate name?
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Replies
The -is ending latinises the originally Germanic (Frankish) name Almod (modern German: Almut). The ending occurs with other types of Germanic names as well (Richmundis, Hildegardis, Bilhidis, ...).
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Al- is a common abbreviation for Adal-/Athel-, occurring alongside the longer versions, and in reference to the same people. E.g. Alfred the Great's proper name was actually Athelfred. Muot is the High German form of the second element. Frankish, Frisian, Old English share the mód form (with long o), from which we get English "mood". Note that a common secondary meaning in the West Germanic languages is "courage. pride", indicated also in the derivative modig "proud, brave", modern German mutig "brave", which explains its popularity as a theme. The moody sense of modern English comes from contact with Norse móðr, which shares with Gothic mōþs the sense of "anger, brooding".
The relation to mund is a red herring. Yes, we might expect mód from an earlier form ending -nd, but it's not. That would indicate an earlier *mand, instead of mund. Instead of sharing a common origin with mind and Latin mens, mentis, mód is actually related to Greek Mousa (Muse), Latin mos, moris "mood, habit, behaviour" (from which we get moral), and Baltic *matō "feel".
The relation to mund is a red herring. Yes, we might expect mód from an earlier form ending -nd, but it's not. That would indicate an earlier *mand, instead of mund. Instead of sharing a common origin with mind and Latin mens, mentis, mód is actually related to Greek Mousa (Muse), Latin mos, moris "mood, habit, behaviour" (from which we get moral), and Baltic *matō "feel".
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