The story
- Old Norse · derived fromvizkr“clever”
- Old Northern French · derived fromguische“ruse”
- Old French · derived fromGuischart
- Italian · derived fromGuiscardo
- Medieval Latin · derived fromGuiscardus
- English todayGuiscard
Via Medieval Latin Guiscardus, Italian Guiscardo, Old French Guischart (literally “crafty rogue, trickster”), via Old Northern French guische (“ruse”) from Old Norse vizkr (“clever”) + harðr (“hard”); compare suffix -ard in Richard.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.