Word of the Day : June 10, 2018

roseate \ROH-zee-ut\ adjective

Definition

1 : resembling a rose especially in color 

2 : overly optimistic : viewed favorably

Did You Know?

"Everything's coming up roses." "He views the world through rose-tinted glasses." "She has a rosy outlook on life." In English, we tend to associate roses and rose color with optimism, and roseate is no exception. Roseate comes from the Latin adjective roseus, and ultimately from the noun rosa, meaning "rose." Figurative use of roseate (with the meaning "happy" or "smiling") began in the 18th century, but the literal sense of the term has been in the language since the 15th century. It's especially well-suited to literary descriptions of sunrises and sunsets: "through yon peaks of cloud-like snow / The roseate sunlight quivers," wrote Percy Bysshe Shelley in Prometheus Unbound. And in an early short story, Edith Wharton wrote, "The sunset was perfect and a roseate light, transfiguring the distant spire, lingered late in the west."

Build your vocabulary! Get Word of the Day in your inbox every day.

Test Your Vocabulary



  Yearbook Superlatives Quiz








    How might you best describe the Class Clown?




                                  risible
                                  fatuous
                                  fractious
                                  diaphanous








    Test your vocabulary with our 10-question quiz!
    TAKE THE QUIZ






    Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.
    TAKE THE QUIZ

Aired June 10, 2018

All Merriam-Webster content is available at www.merriam-webster.com