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ArchivesRe: Different approach to ROSALIE
in reply to a message by Andy
Very interesting! I've seen that explanation too: if I recall, in an Appendix to Chambers English Dictionary, a pretty old edition (1960s perhaps). Not sure if they appropriated it from the Oxford Dictionary of English Names, but they might have. My assumption was that the hanging of roses on tombs was more likely to be pagan than Christian, but my Latin dictionary (Cassell's) doesn't give it.
Rosalis, or Rosalys, turns up in a 19th century poem called The Blessed Damozel, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: there, she is one of the handmaids of the Virgin Mary 'whose names are five sweet symphonies', but only gets a passing mention.
I look forward to more input!
Rosalis, or Rosalys, turns up in a 19th century poem called The Blessed Damozel, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: there, she is one of the handmaids of the Virgin Mary 'whose names are five sweet symphonies', but only gets a passing mention.
I look forward to more input!
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The "rose" derivation was not new to me, only the festival was. Folk etomolygy seems to play a role in this:
De Felice has the following:
L’origine e l’interpretazione del nome è incerta: se il culto, e quindi anche il nome, risale al XII o XIII seculo, come paiono confermare documenti calabresi e siciliani, potrebbe rappresentare un adattamento siciliano in Rusulinu al maschile e Rusulina al feminile des francese antico Roscelin e Rocelin, di origine germanica, introdotto nell’isola dai Normanni; poi per influsso di Lia, Rusulina si è transformato in Rusulia e quindi, per un accostamento dovuto a etimologia populare a Rosa e rosa, nella forma italianizzata Rosalia // attuale. V. anche Rosolina e Rosolino, che in parte sono appunto varianti di Rosalia e Rosalio.
Origin and interpretation of the name are uncertain: if the cult, and hence the name, date from the twelfth or thirteenth century, as seem to confirm Calabrian and Sicilian documents, the name could represent a Sicilian adaptation into the male Rusulinu and the female Rusulina of the Old French Roscelin and Rocelin, of Germanic origin, introduced to the island by the Normans; later by the influence of Lia (=Lea), Rusulina became Rusulia and this, through a harmonisation (due to folk etymology) with Rosa and rose, led to the current Italianized form Rosalia. See also Rosolina and Rosolino, which are in part just variations of Rosalia and Rosalio.
De Felice has the following:
L’origine e l’interpretazione del nome è incerta: se il culto, e quindi anche il nome, risale al XII o XIII seculo, come paiono confermare documenti calabresi e siciliani, potrebbe rappresentare un adattamento siciliano in Rusulinu al maschile e Rusulina al feminile des francese antico Roscelin e Rocelin, di origine germanica, introdotto nell’isola dai Normanni; poi per influsso di Lia, Rusulina si è transformato in Rusulia e quindi, per un accostamento dovuto a etimologia populare a Rosa e rosa, nella forma italianizzata Rosalia // attuale. V. anche Rosolina e Rosolino, che in parte sono appunto varianti di Rosalia e Rosalio.
Origin and interpretation of the name are uncertain: if the cult, and hence the name, date from the twelfth or thirteenth century, as seem to confirm Calabrian and Sicilian documents, the name could represent a Sicilian adaptation into the male Rusulinu and the female Rusulina of the Old French Roscelin and Rocelin, of Germanic origin, introduced to the island by the Normans; later by the influence of Lia (=Lea), Rusulina became Rusulia and this, through a harmonisation (due to folk etymology) with Rosa and rose, led to the current Italianized form Rosalia. See also Rosolina and Rosolino, which are in part just variations of Rosalia and Rosalio.
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