rosa

Forms

rosa f (plural rosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish rosa, inherited from Latin rosa (“rose”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas calls it semi-learned: the word was very popular, but its stressed /o/ did not become the diphthong /ue/, as it also failed to in French and Italian, which shows the influence of the written language, above all of the litanies and pious works in which it first appears.^[2] Wiktionary likewise notes that the inherited form would have been *ruesa.^[1] Meyer-Lübke also saw the influence of the botanists' and poets' language in almost all the Romance forms.^[5]

The same word is Portuguese rosa, Catalan rosa, French rose and Italian rosa.^[5][6] Mozarabic sources have the plural Mozarabic rúsas.^[2]

The Latin word is related to Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”), but the details are unclear.^[1][7] Wiktionary suggests a Greek variant reached Latin, perhaps through another Italic language or from an Aeolic *ῥοζά (rhozá).^[1] The DHLF thinks the Latin and Greek words are independent borrowings from an Eastern language, the Greek probably from Proto-Iranian *wṛda, and that the Latin /s/ may point to an Etruscan intermediary.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in Berceo, who praises the Virgin as fairer than lily or rose.^[2] The CDH has it earlier in the Razón de amor (c. 1205–1250, in a copy of 1250–1260), among the sweet-smelling plants by a spring: la saluia, y sson as rosas, y el liryo & las uiolas.^[8] In Alfonso X's Lapidario a stone is “red like a deep rose”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The flower soon gave a colour word: Nebrija has rosado both “made of roses” and “rose-coloured”.^[2] In 16th-century Mexico and Guatemala rosas and rosas de la tierra named native flowers, beside the Nahuatl word súchil.^[10] Covarrubias says the rose was dedicated to Venus and was a symbol of fleeting pleasure.^[11] Autoridades adds a round red mark on the skin and a fresh, rosy face.^[12]

The Academy now gives a whole range of rose-shaped things, a fried pastry, the saffron flower and its harvest in La Mancha, and, as an adjective, the colour pink; it also calls rosa the press of celebrity romance and, colloquially in Spain, things relating to gay people.^[4] In informal speech rosa is used after a noun for anything pink: unas cortinas rosa.^[13] The derivative rosario “rosary” (1591) is named after the prayers in which the Virgin is compared with a rose.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1205–1250 – rosas in the Razón de amor (in a copy of 1250–1260).^[8]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo;^[2][3] Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – the colour of a stone compared with a rose in the Lapidario.^[9]
• c. 1325 – first record of rosal “rosebush”.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: “a well-known flower and plant”, Latin rosa.^[14]
• 1554 – rosas for flowers given to a church in Mexico City.^[10]
• 1591 – first record of rosario.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Greek rhódon and recalls its dedication to Venus.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin rosa.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. rose: the flower of the rosal, admired for its beauty, scent and colour.^[4][1]
2. A round red or pink blotch on the skin.^[4][12]
3. An object shaped like a rose; a rose-cut diamond.^[4]
4. A fried pastry made of flour dough.^[4][13]
5. (architecture) A ceiling rose.^[4]
6. (La Mancha) The saffron flower; the season of the saffron harvest.^[4]
7. (in the plural) popcorn.^[4][5]
8. (heraldry) A rose.^[1]
9. pink (the colour).^[4][1]

Adjective

1. Pink: unos calcetines rosa.^[4][1][13]
2. Of the press and television: dealing with the love lives and private affairs of celebrities: la prensa rosa.^[4]
3. (colloquial, Spain) Relating to gay people.^[4]

Word family

• rosáceo
• rosado
• rosal
• róseo
• roseta
• sonrosar
• rosaleda
• rosario
• rosetón

Related words

• rododendro
• Latin rosa
• Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 49
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rosa
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. rosa
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7375
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5739
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rose
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. rosa
9. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. rosa
10. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. rosa
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1272
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 642
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rosa
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 411
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 942