roseus

Forms

roseus (feminine rosea, neuter roseum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rosa (“rose”) + -eus.^[2][1][3] The OLD compares Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”), and Wiktionary takes rosa as probably from a variant of the Greek word, perhaps through another Italic language such as Oscan or from an Aeolic form.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Varro,^[3] who speaks of a very small mouth, rosy, with laughter held back.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means made of roses, as a garland in the Copa and Seneca, or crowns of roses in Martial.^[2][4] More often it is rose-coloured, covering a wide range of reds: Catullus has a coverlet dyed with rosy purple, and Pliny the Elder rosy feathers.^[2] It is used especially of the sky at dawn and of the sun: Lucretius has the rosy sun, and Virgil Aurora with her rosy chariot.^[2] Of the human body it often suggests youth, as in Virgil's rosy mouth and Horace's rosy neck.^[2] Lewis & Short note that it is frequent in the Augustan poets.^[4] Church Latin glosses it roseate.^[5]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of a rosy mouth.^[2][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the rosy sun.^[2][3]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of rose-dyed purple.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of Aurora's rosy chariot.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of roses, of roses.^[2][4][1]
2. Rose-coloured, rosy, pink; of dawn and the sun, rosy.^[2][4][1][5]
3. Of the body, rosy, blooming with youth.^[2][1]

Related words

• rosa

Usage notes

The OLD has a separate adjective Rōseus “of Rosea”,^[2] which Köbler finds in Virgil.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson