gm10 wrote: ⤴Sun Oct 06, 2019 7:49 pm
(finally it pays off to have learned latin in school )
So did I, but I had never heard that there existed a female form of ursus.... but indeed: "ursa" *is* being used for two stellar constellations.
If it's valid, "Ursula" must literally mean "little she-bear". Pure Latin, but originally exclusively used in Germanic languages. We live in a strange and wondrous world. Well, one lives and learns....
Now let's try to explain to those English why the Dutch and German words for "girl" (Dutch: "meisje", German: "Mädchen"), are neutral instead of feminine.