eglantine means A Eurasian rose (Rosa rubiginosa, syn. Rosa eglanteria), having prickly stems, fragrant leaves, pink flowers and red hips.
Why “eglantine” is a great word
A wild Eurasian rose, specifically the sweetbrier (Rosa rubiginosa), with prickly stems, fragrant foliage, pink flowers, and scarlet hips. From Middle English eglentyn, from Old French aiglantin (adjective), from aiglent ("sweetbrier"), from Vulgar Latin *aculentum, from Latin aculeus ("prickle, sting"), from acus ("needle"). Unlike "rose"—a generic emblem of the entire genus—or "briar"—a vague tangle of thorny brush—the eglantine is a precise and scented particular. It is the sharp, green perfume released from a crushed leaf on a dusty path, the simple pink bloom that appears ungardened by human hands, the bright hip clinging to the bare cane in November—a quiet reminder that the most potent beauty often resides in the specific, the named, and the wild.
Etymology
From French églantine, Middle English eglentyn, from Old French aiglantin (adj.), from Old French aiglent (“sweetbrier”), from Latin aculentus (with the ending of spinulentus (“thorny, prickly”)), from aculeus (“prickle”), from acus (“needle”).
noun
- A Eurasian rose (Rosa rubiginosa, syn. Rosa eglanteria), having prickly stems, fragrant leaves, pink flowers and red hips.e.g.“Then to come in spite of sorrow,
And at my window bid good-morrow,
Through the sweet-briar, or the vine,
Or the twisted eglantine [...]” — 1645, John Milton, L'Allegro:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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