Zenobia

//zəˈnəʊ.bi.ə// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A female given name from Ancient Greek.

    ""I shall always think," said Zenobia, "that Lord Liverpool went much too far, though I never said so in his time; for I always uphold my friends.""

Example

More examples

""I shall always think," said Zenobia, "that Lord Liverpool went much too far, though I never said so in his time; for I always uphold my friends.""

Etymology

From Latin Zenobia, from Ancient Greek Ζηνοβία (Zēnobía), name of a third century Queen of Palmyra. Ostensibly from Ζήνων (Zḗnōn), an ancient derivative of Ζεύς (Zeús), but also suggested to be a rendering of the Arabic زَيْنَب (zaynab, “Zaynab”). First recorded as an English given name in Cornwall in 1586.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.