Etymology

Ghibelline

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Today it means: In the politics of medieval Italian city states, any member of a faction that supported the Holy Roman Emperor in a long struggle against the Guelphs and the Pope. Full definition →

Italian ghibellino ← German Waiblingen ← Middle High German Wibellingen
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The story

  1. Old High German · derived fromWeibilinga
  2. Middle High German · derived fromWibellingen
  3. German · derived fromWaiblingen
  4. Italian · derived fromghibellino
  5. English todayGhibelline

From Italian ghibellino, from German Waiblingen, from Middle High German Wibellingen, the name of a castle in Swabia held by the Hohenstaufen dynasty (nowadays in the township of Waiblingen), from Old High German Weibilinga, Weibelingen, possibly a suffixed form of the personal name Wabilo, Wahilo. The emperor's supporters used the name as a rallying cry, which was probably introduced to Italy during the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, 1155—1190.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.