November 19, 2004
rose hips
This is the season, or just past the season, for rose hips.
Main Entry: rose hip
Function: noun
: the ripened accessory fruit of a rose that consists of a fleshy receptacle enclosing numerous achenes
What an odd name. Hip. I knew that Gypsy Rose Lee had hips,
but roses themselves?
NOTE: Three rose hips tend to contain as much vitamin C as one orange.
So what's a hip?
{Hip knob} (Arch.), a finial, ball, or other ornament at the
intersection of the hip rafters and the ridge.
{Hip roof}, {Hipped roof} (Arch.), a roof having sloping ends
and sloping sides. See {Hip}, n., 2., and {Hip}, v. t., 3.
Hip \Hip\, n. [OE. hepe, AS. he['o]pe; cf. OHG. hiufo a bramble
bush.] (Bot.)
The fruit of a rosebush, especially of the English dog-rose
({Rosa canina}). [Written also {hop}, {hep}.]
Those are generally unhelpful.
Try this one out.
from an Old High German word, hiafo, for rose fruits; apparently
unrelated to the word for human hip
Apparently? I don't want apparently. I want answers!
And I found one. Thanks to the silly person who said that rose hips were apparently unrelated to human ones.
It's that magic word "hiafo".
hip (n2.)
"seed pod" (especially of wild rose), O.E. heope, hiope, from P.Gmc. *khiup- (cf. dial. Norw. hjupa, O.H.G. hiafo, Ger. hiefe, O.E. hiopa "briar, bramble").
Now that makes sense!
I'm hip.
Posted by dotty at November 19, 2004 08:58 PM