Word For The Wise: 1919 coinages
March 8th, 2010
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Author: June is National Rose Month and before the month goes to seed, let's put on those rose-colored glasses and investigate the various roses in our lexical garden.
Botanists count more than one hundred species and thirteen thousand varieties of the beautiful and fragrant rose. Shakespeare asserted that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but we'd bet that, given a choice, most people would choose a brier rose over dog rose, (at least until they found out that those are two different names for the same European wild rose).
Florists aren't the only folks who have transplanted the rose into our language. Vegetable gardeners have dubbed the end of a potato or other tuber opposite the point of attachment the rose end.
Botanists count more than one hundred species and thirteen thousand varieties of the beautiful and fragrant rose. Shakespeare asserted that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but we'd bet that, given a choice, most people would choose a brier rose over dog rose, (at least until they found out that those are two different names for the same European wild rose).
Florists aren't the only folks who have transplanted the rose into our language. Vegetable gardeners have dubbed the end of a potato or other tuber opposite the point of attachment the rose end.
Dog breeders (who may or may not be raising dog roses) call a dog's ear that folds backward to display part of the inside a rose ear. Your jeweler might encourage you to consider a rose cut, a gem-cutting style that makes a cut stone resemble a rose. But be careful; another gemological rose names a diamond so small it can be cut only a little if it all.
It's easy to see where all these rose terms come from: from rose ear to rose end to a rose-cut diamond, they all in some way resemble a rose. But mistaking one particular type of rose for another will not result in your coming up roses. Rose water, which is used as a perfume, is made by distilling fresh rose flowers with water or steam. But rose water ointment is nothing more than cold cream.
Send us your questions, rosey or not. Our e-mail address is wftw@aol.com. Our street address is Word for the Wise, 318 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12206.
Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CD's including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
It's easy to see where all these rose terms come from: from rose ear to rose end to a rose-cut diamond, they all in some way resemble a rose. But mistaking one particular type of rose for another will not result in your coming up roses. Rose water, which is used as a perfume, is made by distilling fresh rose flowers with water or steam. But rose water ointment is nothing more than cold cream.
Send us your questions, rosey or not. Our e-mail address is wftw@aol.com. Our street address is Word for the Wise, 318 Central Avenue, Albany, New York 12206.
Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CD's including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.
Posted in Dictionary
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Tags: 1919 coinages, lexical garden, one hundred species, Shakespeare asserted, Word For The Wise