Editing Isabel (section)

==Etymology==
This set of names is a Spanish variant of the [[Hebrew]] name [[Elisheba]] through Latin and Greek represented in English and other European languages as [[Elizabeth (given name)|Elisabeth]].<ref name="Dauzat">[[Albert Dauzat]], ''Noms et prénoms de France'', Librairie Larousse 1980, édition revue et commentée par [[Marie-Thérèse Morlet]], p. 337a.</ref><ref name="Tanet">Chantal Tanet et Tristan Hordé, ''Dictionnaire des prénoms'', Larousse, Paris, 2009, p. 38{{ISBN|978-2-03-583728-8}}</ref> These names are derived from the Latin and Greek renderings of the Hebrew name based on both etymological and contextual evidence (the use of Isabel as a translation of the name of [[Elizabeth (Biblical person)|the mother of John the Baptist]]).<ref>Guido Gómez de Silva, ''Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española'', Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1985.</ref> The variant form originated through the loss of the first syllable through [[rebracketing]] and the replacement of final {{IPA|/t/}} with {{IPA|/l/}} (as {{IPA|/t/}} does not appear word-finally in standard Spanish).<ref>Hanks, Patrick und Flavia Hodges. ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names''. Oxford University Press, 1996, p.166.</ref> Elisabeth was understood in Spain as a name with the masculine [[definite article]] ''el'' "the", that is to say ''*El Isabeth'', from it, the short form ''*Isabeth'' where the final ''-el'' was substituted to ''-eth'', both for aesthetical reasons or feminization,<ref name="Dauzat"/> or the entire syllable ''-bel'' was substituted to ''-beth'', by analogy with ''bella'' "pretty, beautiful".