Sibilla

Historical scholarship

Passages quoted verbatim from public-domain reference works. They reflect the scholarship of their time, not current consensus, and may use obsolete spellings.

• 1884From the archives

  Sibilla— “wise old woman”

  Sibilla, probably through the influence of Campania upon nomenclature, early spread as a Christian name. Possibly the word was the more acceptable to Northern ears from its resemblance to the Gothic _sibja_ (peace, or friendship), the word familiar to us as the Scottish _sib_ (related), forming with us the last syllable of gossip, in its old sense of god-parent. Thence came Sippia, Sib, or Sif, the lovely wife of Thor, whose hair was cut off by Lok, and its place supplied by…

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  Sibilla, probably through the influence of Campania upon nomenclature, early spread as a Christian name. Possibly the word was the more acceptable to Northern ears from its resemblance to the Gothic _sibja_ (peace, or friendship), the word familiar to us as the Scottish _sib_ (related), forming with us the last syllable of gossip, in its old sense of god-parent. Thence came Sippia, Sib, or Sif, the lovely wife of Thor, whose hair was cut off by Lok, and its place supplied by golden tresses, which some consider to mean the golden harvest.

  Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part IV, Chapter V (Names From Roman Deities), Section VII (Sibylla) · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)