masc. proper name, from Latin Caecilius (fem. Caecilia), name of a Roman gens, from caecus "blind" (see caecum).

holder of any of the scholarships founded at Oxford in 1902 by British financier and imperialist Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902), for whom the former African colony of Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe) also was named. The surname is literally "dweller by a clearing," from Old English rodu "plot of land of one square rod." Related: Rhodesia; Rhodesian.