roz

Forms

roz m or f or n (indeclinable)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French rose (“pink”), the French colour adjective, itself the name of the flower.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The French noun is from Latin rosa (“rose”), borrowed into Old French in the 12th century.^[6][1] The Latin word is related to Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon) without being taken from it: the DHLF holds that both are probably separate loans from a language of the East, perhaps Iranian, and that the Latin ⟨s⟩ may point to Etruscan transmission.^[6]

Ciorănescu records an old variant ros, and MDA2 a rare roza, also spelled ⟨rosa⟩.^[2][3] The noun roză “rose” is a separate borrowing of the same French word.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is from 1840, in the description of a dress of pink and yellow tartan: „O rochiță de tartan roz și galbăn” “a dress of pink and yellow tartan”.^[5][3] The sense was already the modern one, a very light red between red and white.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Older writers inflected the adjective: Negruzzi wrote of a note on „hîrtie roză” “pink paper”, and Eminescu of lips „subțiri și roze” “thin and pink”.^[5][8] The DLR notes that today it is usually invariable (ciorapi roz “pink stockings”), and DEX 2009 labels it invariable.^[5][4]

Used as a noun, it names the colour, and in the plural its shades.^[3] The phrase a vedea (totul) în roz “to see everything in pink” means to be optimistic.^[3][4] Compounds name new shades: roz-electric “shocking pink” is recorded in the press in 1967, roz-oranj in 1978.^[9] Ciorănescu lists the derivatives rozalb, a literary coinage for a pale pink complexion, and rozaric “rosy”, formed by Alecsandri.^[2]

Timeline

• 1840 – roz “pink”, the first record, describing a tartan dress.^[3][5]
• 1967 – roz-electric “shocking pink” in the press.^[9]
• 1978 – roz-oranj “pinkish orange” in the press.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. pink, rose-coloured: of a very light red, between red and white, like trandafiriu, and today usually invariable: o rochie roz.^[4][3][1]

Noun

1. The colour pink; in the plural, its various shades.^[4][3]
2. a vedea (sau a privi ceva) în roz: to look at things with optimism, to see the world through rose-tinted glasses.^[4][3]

Word family

• rozalb

Related words

• French rose

Usage notes

Roz bombon is a pale “candy pink”.^[10] Scriban records a different, regional roz, the first person singular of roade “to gnaw”, standard rod.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. roz
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 730
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 964
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. roz
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 731
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 781
9. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. roz
10. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. roz
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1140