Emily
English edit
Etymology edit
English form of Latin Aemilia, a gens name from aemulus (“rival, or those in the next valley”).
Proper noun edit
Emily
- A female given name from Latin.
- 1380s-1390s, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale
- I am thy mortal foe, and it am I
- That so hot loveth Emily the bright,
- That I would die here present in her sight.
- 1830, Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village: Fourth Series: Cottage Names::
- People will please their fancies, and every lady has her favourite names. I myself have several, and they are mostly short and simple. - - - Emily, in which all womanly sweetness seems bound up - perhaps this is the effect of association of ideas - I have known so many charming Emilys
- 1980, Barbara Pym, A Few Green Leaves, →ISBN, page 8:
- This may have accounted for Emma's Christian name, for it had seemed to Beatrix unfair to call her daughter Emily, a name associated with her grandmother's servants rather than the author of The Wuthering Heights, so Emma had been chosen, perhaps with the hope that some of the qualities possessed by the heroine of the novel might be perpetuated.
- 2010, Joanne Harris, blueeyedboy, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 102:
- Emily. Em-il-y, three syllables, like a knock on the door of destiny. Such an odd, old-fashioned name, compared to those Kylies and Traceys and Jades — names that reeked of Impulse and grease and stood out in gaudy neon colours — whilst hers was that muted, dusky pink, like bubblegum, like roses —
- 1380s-1390s, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale
Usage notes edit
- Emily has been used as a vernacular form of the Germanic Amelia, up to the nineteenth century.
- Used since the Middle Ages; popular in the 19th century and once again today.
Related terms edit
Translations edit
given name
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See also edit
Anagrams edit
Danish edit
Proper noun edit
Emily
- a female given name, an English type spelling of Emilie
German edit
Pronunciation edit
Proper noun edit
Emily
- a female given name from English [in turn from Latin], variant of Emilie
Swedish edit
Proper noun edit
Emily c (genitive Emilys)
- a female given name from from English [in turn from French Amélie, in turn from Latin Aemilia], variant of Emelie
Tagalog edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Proper noun edit
Émilý (Baybayin spelling ᜁᜋᜒᜎᜒ)
- a female given name from English