dowsabel

dowsabel · noun

From the female given name Dowsabel.

Dowsabel · noun

Dowsabel was never a highly popular or widespread given name, but it enjoyed a modest window of genuine use in late medieval and Tudor-era England before transitioning entirely into an poetic vocabulary word. The name originated as an anglicized phonetic spelling of the Latin given name Dulcibella, combining dulcis ("sweet") and bellus ("beautiful"). In late medieval England, it appeared sporadically in parish registries under variations like Dousabel, Dowzable, and Dussabel. In 1593, Michael Drayton published "The Ballad of Dowsabel" within The Shepheard's Garland; and in the Comedy of Errors (c. 1594), William Shakespeare used it as an ironic moniker for a kitchen maid. Because of its heavy usage in pastoral poetry, the name underwent a linguistic shift (anthimeria). By the mid-1600s, British English speakers stopped naming their children Dowsabel and instead began using the lower-case word dowsabel as a generic noun meaning "sweetheart" or "lady-love". By the 18th century, the term became obsolete as both a name and a noun.