English

Alternative forms

• Synthia

Proper noun

Cynthia ‎(countable and uncountable, plural Cynthias)

1. (uncountable, poetic) The Moon, personified.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:

     As when faire Cynthia, in darkesome night, / Is in a noyous cloud enveloped [...].

   • 1601 Ben Jonson, Hymn to Diana:

     Cynthia's shining orb was made / Heaven to clear when day did close[...].

2. (countable) A female given name.
   • 1866 Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, Chapter 10:

     "Cynthia seems to me such an out-of-the-way name, only fit for poetry, not for daily use."

   • 1978 Graham Greene, The Human Factor, ISBN 0671240854, page 59:

     Cynthia, the domestic-minded, looked as dashing as a young commando. It was a pity that her spelling was so bad, but perhaps there was something Elizabethan about her spelling as well as about her name.

Usage notes

• Popular given name in the U.S.A. in the 1950s and the 1960s.

Synonyms

• (the Moon, personified): Selene, Luna

Translations

Portuguese

Proper noun

Cynthia f

1. Alternative spelling of Cíntia