- rose (n.1)
- 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. Used as a color name since 1520s. In English civil wars of 15c., the white rose was the badge of the House of York, the red of its rival Lancaster. In the figurative sense, bed of roses is from 1590s. (In 15c. to be (or dwell) in flowers meant "be prosperous, flourish.") To come up roses is attested from 1969; the image, though not the wording, from 1855. To come out smelling like a rose is from 1968. Rose of Sharon (Song of Sol. ii:1) is attested from 1610s and named for the fertile strip of coastal Palestine. The flower has not been identified; used in U.S. since 1847 of the Syrian hibiscus.
- rose (n.2)
- light red wine, 1897, from French vin rosé, literally "pink wine."
