 The original Welsh form of the name (or "Gwenhwyvar"), which seems to be cognate with the Irish name , can be translated as "The White Enchantress" or "The White Fay/Ghost", from Proto-Celtic "*Windo-" "white, fair, holy" + "*sēbarā" "magical being" (cognate with Old Irish "síabair" "a spectre, phantom, supernatural being [usually in pejorative sense]").Some have suggested that the name may derive from ', or "Gwenhwy the Great", as a contrast to ', or "Gwenhwy the less".Gwenhwyfach (also spelled "Gwenhwyach") appears in Welsh literature as a sister of Gwenhwyfar, but Welsh scholars Melville Richards and Rachel Bromwich both dismiss this etymology (with Richards suggesting that Gwenhwyfach was a back-formation derived from an incorrect interpretation of "Gwenwhy-far" as "Gwenhwy-fawr").