fem. proper name, Biblical name of the wife of Aaron, from Late Latin Elisabeth, from Greek Eleisabeth, Eleisabet, from Hebrew Elishebha "God is an oath," the second element said by Klein to be related to shivah (fem. sheva) "seven," and to nishba "he swore," originally "he bound himself by (the sacred number) seven." Has never ranked lower than 26th in popularity among the names given to baby girls in the U.S. in any year since 1880, the oldest for which a reliable list is available.
masc. proper name, from Old French rous-el, diminutive of rous "red," used as a personal name. See russet.
A queen of England in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; a brilliant and crafty ruler who presided over the Renaissance in England. Her reign, the Elizabethan period, was a time of notable triumphs in literature (William Shakespeare rose to prominence while she was queen) and war (the defeat of the Spanish Armada). The daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth never married. She is called the “Virgin Queen” and “Good Queen Bess.”
Note: The state of Virginia is named after the “Virgin Queen.”
The present queen of Britain. Her husband is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the eldest of her four children is Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales. Since Elizabeth became queen in 1952, dozens of nations, formerly possessions of Britain, have become independent.