It was a goddamn ORGANISATION!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Gesserit
"Origin of the name
In the real world the name "Bene Gesserit" was likely extracted from the legal Latin phrase "quamdiu se bene gesserit" = "as long as he shall behave himself well", via someone knowing that "bene" is also Hebrew for "sons of". Bene Gesserit by itself means "(s)he shall have behaved well".
Gesserit comes from the Latin verb 'gero', meaning to bear or carry. The phrase Bene Gesserit can be translated "she will have born (ie, reproduced) well".
In Brian Herbert's biography of his father, Brian speculates that the name "Gesserit" is supposed to remind the reader of the word Jesuit, thus envoking undertones of a religious order."
Whoodathunk!