What’s in a Name?

When it is a Rose, symbol of love and St. Valentine’s day, everything.  But are you still on the internet, looking for some last minute inspiration? Ok, let’s go with the roses. Probably too late to find some, so you will have to dazzle your love with your knowledge of the Proto-Indo-European origins of the English word, and as it turns out, most of Europe. I mean, look at this map!

No matter what your language, you can probably ask for roses across Europe and Russia and parts of the near Middle East and be understood! Good luck finding them, but at least you now have more options!

The English word rose comes to us from the Latin word rosa, but take a look at the eytmology on-line entry:

Old English rose, from Latin rosa (source of Italian and Spanish rosa, French rose; also source of Dutch roos, German Rose, Swedish ros, Serbo-Croatian ruža, Polish róża, Russian roza, Lithuanian rože, Hungarian rózsa, Irish ros, Welsh rhosyn, etc.), probably via Italian and Greek dialects from Greek rhodon “rose” (Aeolic wrodon), probably ultimately related to Iranian root *vrda-.

But Tucker writes: “The rose was a special growth of Macedonia & the Thracian region as well as of Persia, & the Lat. & Gk. names prob. came from a Thraco-Phrygian source.” Aramaic warda is from Old Persian; the modern Persian cognate, via the usual sound changes, is gul, source of Turkish gül “rose.” Klein proposes a PIE *wrdho- “thorn, bramble.” The form of the English word was influenced by the French.

Now get out there and find some roses!

Red roses blooming courtesy Michael Durham, who retains all copyright.

Map of rose in European Languages courtesy Business Insider.  

Thanks to my friend Ugne for directing me to the map of words. This rože is for you.