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Rosa
rosace
rosacea
rosaceous
Rosalind
rosaniline
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Rosario
rosary
rosary pea
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rosary

ro·sa·ry [ rṓzəree ] (plural ro·sa·ries)


noun 
Definition:
 
1. series of prayers: a series of Roman Catholic prayers, usually made up of five or 15 decades of Hail Marys, each decade beginning with an Our Father and ending with a Gloria

2. Catholic prayer beads: a string of beads used in counting the prayers said in a rosary

3. non-Catholic prayer beads: a string of beads used in praying by members of religions or denominations other than Roman Catholicism

[15th century. < Latin rosarium, Anglo-Latin rosarius "rose garden" (see rosarian)]

Word History

It was a common stylistic device in the Middle Ages to name collections of verse or similar short pieces after bunches of flowers (anthology comes from the Greek word for "flower," and a similar inspiration underlies florilegium). This was the background against which a collection of Roman Catholic prayers came to be known as a rosary. The metaphor was probably encouraged by the symbolic association of roses and rose gardens with, respectively, the Virgin Mary and paradise.

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