Bridget

English

Etymology

English form of the Irish saints' name Brighid, Brigid. Doublet of Bride.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɪd͡ʒɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ɪdʒɪt

Proper noun

Bridget

1. A female given name from Irish.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 45:

     And when Miſtreſſe Briget loſt the handle of her Fan, I took't vpon mine honour thou hadſt it not.

   • 2000, David Pierce, Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century: A Reader, Cork University Press., →ISBN, pages 8–9:

     Of all the beautiful Christian names of women which were in use a century or two ago Brighid (Breed), under the ugly form of Bridget, or still worse, Biddy, and Eiblin under the form of Eveleen, and perhaps Norah, seem to be the only survivals, and they are becoming rarer.

Translations

female given name

• Breton: Berc'hed (br), Brec'hed
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 布麗奇特／布丽奇特 (Bùlìqíte)

• Czech: Brigita f
• Danish: Birgitte
• Esperanto: Birgita
• Estonian: Piret
• Faroese: Birita f
• Finnish: Pirkko (fi)
• French: Brigitte (fr)
• Georgian: ბრიგიტა (brigiṭa)
• German: Brigitte (de)
• Greenlandic: Bikki
• Irish: Bríd f, Brighid f (pre-spelling reform)
• Italian: Brigida (it), Brigitta f
• Latvian: Brigita f
• Lithuanian: Brigita (lt) f
• Manx: Breeshey f
• Northern Sami: Biret
• Norwegian: Birgitte (no)
• Old Norse: Brígiða f
• Polish: Brygida (pl) f
• Portuguese: Brígida (pt) f
• Russian: Бриги́тта f (Brigítta), Бри́джит f (Brídžit)
• Scottish Gaelic: Brìghde
• Spanish: Brigida
• Swedish: Birgitta (sv), Birgit (sv)
• Vietnamese: Brigitta
• Welsh: Ffraid f

Noun

Bridget (plural Bridgets)

1. (US, dated) An Irish housemaid.
   • 1891, Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Good Housekeeping:

     So long as any Bridget just landed (even before she has learned to walk comfortably in American shoes) can be sure of four dollars a week and her board and prequisites, it is the Bridgets who are really mistress of the situation.

   • 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC, part IV, page 671:

     My nurse, my Bridget, has gone back North. She said she wouldn’t stay another day down here among the ‘naygurs’ as she calls them.

   • 2009, Aife Murray, Maid as Muse: How Servants Changed Emily Dickinson's Life and Language:

     Beggar lads, emigrants, mowers, slaves, rustics, Malays, Bridgets, and porters peopled her work […]