Melissa

Melissa is a given name for a female child. The name comes from the Greek word μέλισσα (melissa), "honey bee", which in turn comes from μέλι (meli), "honey". In Hittite melit signifies "honey". Thus the name is the approximate Greek equivalent for the Hebrew name Deborah (דְּבוֹרָה), meaning bee.

Melissa also refers to the plant Melissa officinalis (Lamiaceae family), known as lemon balm.

Melisa is a common variant form, with others being Malissa, Melesa, Melessa, Meliza, Mellisa, Melosa, and Molissa.

In Ireland it is sometimes used as a feminine form of the Gaelic male name Maoilíosa, which means "servant of Jesus".

According to Greek mythology, perhaps reflecting Minoan culture, making her the daughter of a Cretan king Melissos, whose -issos ending is pre-Greek, Melissa was a nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey and from whom bees were believed to have received their name. She was one of the nymph nurses of Zeus, sister to Amaltheia, but rather than feeding the baby milk, Melissa, appropriately for her name, fed him honey. Or, alternatively, the bees brought honey straight to his mouth. Because of her, Melissa became the name of all the nymphs who cared for the patriarch god as a baby.

Melissa, Calabria

Melissa is a comune in the province of Crotone, in Calabria. The village Melissa is situated in the mountainous inland, while the frazione of Torre Melissa is on the Ionian Sea coast. The Melissa DOC is a Calabrian wine region.

History

Melissa is mentioned for the first time in 13th century documents. It was a fief of the de Micheli family (1463–66), Venitian nobles based in Calabria, of the Campitelli family (1485–1688) and, later, to the Pignatelli (1688–1806).

In 1949 it was the location of a massacre, when the police shot against the population, killing three people.

References

Kasakela Chimpanzee Community

The Kasakela chimpanzee community is a habituated community of wild eastern chimpanzees that lives in Gombe National Park near Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania. The community was the subject of Dr Jane Goodall's pioneering study that began in 1960, and studies have continued ever since. As a result, the community has been instrumental in the study of chimpanzees, and has been popularized in several books and documentaries. The community's popularity was enhanced by Dr Goodall's practice of giving names to the chimpanzees she was observing, in contrast to the typical scientific practice of identifying the subjects by number. Dr Goodall generally used a naming convention in which infants were given names starting with the same letter as their mother, allowing the recognition of matrilineal lines.

Erica

Erica/ˈɛrᵻkə/, is a genus of roughly 860 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. The English common names "heath" and "heather" are shared by some closely related genera of similar appearance. The genus Calluna was formerly included in Erica – it differs in having even smaller scale-leaves (less than 2–3 mm long), and the flower corolla being consisting of separate petals. Erica is sometimes referred to as "winter (or spring) heather" to distinguish it from Calluna "summer (or autumn) heather".

Description

Most of the species are small shrubs from 20–150 cm (8–59 in) high, though some are taller; the tallest are E. arborea (tree heath) and E. scoparia (besom heath), both of which can reach up to 7 m (23 ft) tall. All are evergreen, with minute, needle-like leaves 2–15 mm long. Flowers are sometimes axillary, and sometimes borne in terminal umbels or spikes, and are usually outward or downward facing. The seeds are very small, and in some species may survive in the soil for decades.

Erika (given name)

The given name Erika, or Erica, is a feminine form of Eric, deriving from the Old Norse name Eiríkr (or Eríkr in Eastern Scandinavia due to monophthongization). The first element, ei- is derived either from the older Proto-NorseZ*aina(z) meaning "one" or "some", or from Proto-Norse *aiwa(z) meaning "fair" or "tradition". The second element -ríkr derives either from *rík(a)z meaning "ruler" or "prince" (cf. Gothic reiks), or from an even older Proto-Germanic *ríkiaz which meant "powerful" and "rich". The name is thus usually taken to mean something along the lines of "one ruler", "autocrat", "eternal ruler" or "ever powerful".

It is a common name in many Western societies. It is also a popular given name in Japan. Erica is also the name of a genus of approximately 860 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, commonly known as "heaths" or "heathers" in English.

People