Sub pink
The Latin phrase sub rosa (literally "under the rose ") means "under the seal of secrecy". Apparently it is a translation into Neo-Latin , since corresponding expressions in some West Germanic languages are attested well before the first known evidence of the Latin form from 1654, i.e. in early New Dutch ("onder de roose"), in Middle Low German ("under der rosen "), In early New High German (" under the rose ") and in English (" under the rose, "first documented in 1546).
Early evidence from German can be found, for example, in Sebastian Brant 1494:
and wills jn bichtswisz han geton,
the nit disclaimer kumvon
and the ers under der rosen hett
and jn din own hertz talked.
and in a poem by Hans Sachs :
but as [= everything] what we mean to kosen
should be as ghredt undter der Rosen
auff the no word further kumb.
In Grimm's German dictionary and other works, the question of origin is referred to the silent rose , i.e. the carved or painted rose on the ceiling of convent halls , on confessionals and in knights' halls as a symbol of silence. Another derivation is based on drinkers wreathed with roses at the banquet, i.e. that something that is talked in confidence among friends over wine should not leak out. Finally, there is a mythological derivation, namely that the rose is said to have been a gift from Venus / Aphrodite to Harpocrates , the god of silence, to ensure that secrecy is maintained about the various love deals of the goddess of love. This is evidenced by a late Latin epigram :
Est rosa flos Veneris, cujus quo furta laterent
Harpocrati matris dona dicavit amor.
Inde rosam mensis hospes suspendit amici,
Convivae ut sub ea dicta tacenda sciat.
The German form of the phrase was common from the 15th to the 17th century and is completely uncommon today, the Latin form was still common until the 19th century. The quote from Goethe is well known :
Nobody likes to confess in prose;
But we often trust sub Rosa
In the muses' silent grove.
Today the phrase sub rosa is rare and is only used in educational language.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b sub rosa , Duden online
- ^ E. Gayton: Pleasant Notes Don Quixot. iii. v. 93: "What ever thou and the foule pusse did doe ( sub Rosa as they say)". Quoted in: Oxford English Dictionary , sv sub rosa .
- ^ State Papers Henry VIII (1852) XI. 200: "The sayde questyons were asked with lysence, and that yt shulde remayn under the rosse, that is to say, to remayn under the bourde, and no more to be rehersyd." Quoted in: Oxford English Dictionary , sv rose / P1 . under the rose .
- ↑ Brant: The Ship of Fools 7, 13
- ↑ Quoted in: Grimm: DWB . Vol. 14, Col. 1180.
- ↑ Grimm: DWB . Vol. 14, Col. 1179f.
- ↑ See e.g. B. Johann Baptist Friedreich : The symbolism and mythology of nature. Stahel, Würzburg 1859, p. 224 .
- ^ Heinrich Meyer: Anthologia veterum Latinorum epigrammatum et poematum. Vol. 2. Fleischer, Leipzig 1835. No. 1550, p. 189 .
- ↑ From the poem " To the Favorable ". In: Goethe's works. Complete edition last hand. First volume. JG Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, Stuttgart and Tübingen 1827. p. 12
- ↑ sub rosa ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Frequency class : 21 ( vocabulary dictionary of the University of Leipzig )
