Everyday LifeGreek → English
Eugenia
/juːˈdʒiːniə/noun
A woman's given name, and a large genus of trees in the myrtle family.
The Greek roots
εὖ
eû
well, good
γένος
génos
birth, stock
Literally: “well born”
The story of the word
εὐγενής meant noble by descent, and in Athens it was a claim about family, not character. Saint Eugenia of Rome carried the name into Christian use, and it stayed common in Greece, Russia and Spain. Linnaeus attached Eugenia to a tropical genus in honour of Prince Eugene of Savoy, and Francis Galton took the same adjective in 1883 to build eugenics, which has shadowed the root ever since.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
Eugeneeugenicsgenesisgenetic
In a sentence
Her grandmother was Eugenia, and everyone in the village called her Jenny.