Everyday LifeGreek → English
Dorcas
/ˈdɔːrkəs/proper noun
A female given name, borne by the charitable widow of Acts 9.
The Greek roots
δορκάς
dorkás
gazelle, roe deer
Literally: “gazelle”
Follow a root:δορκάς1 word
The story of the word
Acts 9 introduces a woman at Joppa called Tabitha in Aramaic, and adds that the name means Dorcas in Greek. Both words mean gazelle. Δορκάς comes from a verb for seeing sharply, the animal being named for its eyes, and because the biblical Dorcas sewed clothes for widows, Victorian parish sewing groups called themselves Dorcas societies.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
dorcas gazelle
In a sentence
Her grandmother Dorcas had run the church sewing circle for forty years.