Benoît

April 25, 2005

The new Pope's choice of name, Benedict, has been dissected and analysed by the British press in a bid to discover what kind of reign his will be, here and here for example. In French, he is known as Benoît, a name which shares the same origin, benedictus, meaning blessed (the feminine form is Bénédicte). Benoît can also be used as an ajective, and can have two meanings:
1. Good and gentle
2. Falsely naive

Interestingly, when it comes to the adverb benoîtement, only meaning 2. applies, so if someone says something benoîtement, they are putting on an act and are not being as innocent as they seem. So, according to his French name anyway, a Pope to watch closely…