Everyday LifeGreek → English
Berenice
/ˌbɛrəˈniːsi/noun
A woman's name of Macedonian Greek origin, borne by several Ptolemaic queens.
The Greek roots
φέρω
phérō
to bear, bring
νίκη
níkē
victory
Literally: “bringer of victory”
The story of the word
Macedonian speech turned φ into b, so Pherenike arrived in Egypt as Berenike and became a royal name there. Berenice II cut off her hair as an offering for her husband's safe return from war; when the lock disappeared from the temple, the court astronomer announced that the gods had set it in the sky. Coma Berenices is still a constellation, the only one named for a real woman's hair.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
pheromonemetaphorEuniceNike
In a sentence
Berenice was her grandmother's name and she wore it without apology.
On a dark night you can just make out the loose scatter of stars in Coma Berenices.