Etymograph

English

rose

Rose comes from Middle English rose, and goes back to Latin rosa.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErosa1
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150rōse2
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500rose2
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595rose2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old English rose
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English rose
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet: “Iu. 'Tis but thy name that is my Enemy:…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErosaWiktionary, Old English rose
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150rōseWiktionary, English rose
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500roseWiktionary, English rose
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595roseWiktionary, English rose. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet: “Iu. 'Tis but thy name that is my Enemy:…”

The story

From Middle English rose, roose, from Old English rōse, but with its vowel influenced by Old French rose, both from Latin rosa. The Latin is of uncertain origin, but likely via Oscan from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”) (Aeolic ϝρόδον (wródon)), from Old Persian *vr̥dah (‘flower’) (compare Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬜𐬀- (var^əδa-), Sogdian [script needed] (ward), Parthian wâr, late Middle Persian [Term?] (gwl /⁠gul⁠/), Persian گل (gol, “rose, flower”), and Middle Iranian borrowings including Old Armenian վարդ (vard, “rose”), Aramaic וַרְדָּא (wardā) / ܘܪܕܐ (wardā), Arabic وَرْدَة (warda), Hebrew וֶרֶד (wéreḏ)), from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dʰos (‘sweetbriar’) (compare Old English word (‘thornbush’), Latin rubus (‘bramble’), Albanian hurdhe (‘ivy’)).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Possibly ultimately a derivation from a verb for "to grow" only attested in Indo-Iranian (*Hwardʰ-, compare Sanskrit वर्धति (vardhati), with relatives in Avestan).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with rose, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Ancient Greek ῥόδον

through Latin rosa

  • rosary ← rosarie ← rosārium

23 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of rose

  1. Frenchc. 1600–presentrosé‘pinkish’
  2. Englishtodayrose

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Today it means

noun A shrub of the genus Rosa, with red, pink, white or yellow flowers.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “rose”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old English rose. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin rosa / rose