Ghibelline
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 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. historical
"These two factions came to be called Guelphs and Ghibellines respectively. The Guelphs were the supporters of the Popes, the Ghibellines of the Emperors. The Guelphs upheld the temporal supremacy of the Pope: the Ghibellines would separate temporal from spiritual authority. The Guelphs resisted the establishment of complete imperial government in the cities of northern Italy: the Ghibellines, with the glories of the old Roman Empire before their eyes, longed to see Italy welded together into a single nation, and governed and controlled by the strong hands of the emperor."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"These two factions came to be called Guelphs and Ghibellines respectively. The Guelphs were the supporters of the Popes, the Ghibellines of the Emperors. The Guelphs upheld the temporal supremacy of the Pope: the Ghibellines would separate temporal from spiritual authority. The Guelphs resisted the establishment of complete imperial government in the cities of northern Italy: the Ghibellines, with the glories of the old Roman Empire before their eyes, longed to see Italy welded together into a single nation, and governed and controlled by the strong hands of the emperor."
Etymology
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.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.