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Re: The Manifold Meanings of "Eleanor"
Neither -nord nor -mardis are recorded elsewhere as feminine terminal elements, which are always feminine nouns. North is an adjective, which are only used for male names, mardis is nowhere else recorded. Northumbrian f. meard is for West Saxon meord, earlier miord, Gothic mizdo, Bulgarian mizda, Greek misþon "pay", however the normal West German form is OE med, OS meda, OHG meta, archaic modern English meed "pay". Not really a match. From meri "famous" there is OE f. mǽrþa "fame", but the continetal form is mariþa or marida, not mardis, and it doesn't appear in names. Finally there is OE mærþ or mearþ (pronounced mæarþ), OHG mard "marten", which is feminine (it may have originally meant "bride", comparable applications are found in Italian and Greek) and "might" be a recorded name element (the gender of the recorded names is unclear). The medieval Latin form (borrowed from Frankish) is martes, fairly close to mardis. Odd that the author should assume Ade is from Adal, and then in the next sentence correctly state that Ade in Ademar represents Aud "weath".

This message was edited 11/14/2017, 3:29 PM

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Interesting - so the search for root meanings for "Aenor" here are questionable.What do you think of contemporary (or very quick) crossover in the use of Eleanor and versions of "Helen"?
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Some are plausible but lack sufficient corroboration.
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