Tuesday, December 08, 2015

Word of the day: rosette

The word of the day is rosette:
  1. any arrangement, part, object, or formation more or less resembling a rose.
  2. a rose-shaped arrangement of ribbon or other material, used as an ornament or badge.
  3. Also, rosace. an architectural ornament resembling a rose or having a generally circular combination of parts.
  4. Botany. a circular cluster of leaves or other organs.
  5. a broad ornamental head for a screw or nail.
  6. Metallurgy.
    1. any of a number of disks of refined copper formed when cold water is thrown onto the molten metal.
    2. a rounded microconstituent of certain alloys.
  7. Plant Pathology. any of several diseases of plants, characterized by the crowding of the foliage into circular clusters owing to a shortening of the internodes of stems or branches, caused by fungi, viruses, or nutritional deficiencies.
  8. one of the compound spots on a leopard.
"a rose-shaped ornament," especially a bunch or knot of ribbons worn as a decoration, 1790, from Fr. rosette, from O.Fr. rosette, dim. of rose "rose."

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rosette)


"In great numbers, the Oktoberfesters were streaming past, the women in cinched dirndls and wenchy blouses, the men in suède or leather breeches laced just below the knee, tight jackets studded with medals or badges, and jaunty little hats with feathers, rosettes, cockades."

 - Martin Amis, "Oktober", 7 December 2015 The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/07/oktober)

No comments: