rosc

See also: ROSC, rosć, rość, and róść

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Irish rosc (“rhetorical composition”), from Old Irish rosc (“short poem, ode”).

Noun

rosc (countable and uncountable, plural roscada)

1. An ancient form of unrhymed Old Irish verse that uses alliteration and meter.
   • 1995, Calvert Watkins, How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics, →ISBN, page 255:

     Liam Breatnach observed in an important article (Breatnach 1984, with references) that 'Old Irish texts appear in three forms: prose, rhyming syllabic verse, and rosc. The simplest definition of rosc is that it is neither of the other two.'

   • 1997, Maria Tymoczko, The Irish Ulysses, →ISBN, page 307:

     Elsewhere we find descriptions of the most archaic Irish poetry, the passages of obscure poetry called rosc. Sigerson analyzes rosc as rhythmical though unrhymed verse designed to express or to stir up vehement enthusiasm and claims it is the first example of blank verse (Bards of the Gael and Gall 25); Hull characterizes rosc as a declamatory, alliterative blank verse where changes of meter correspond to changes of idea (Text Book I: 202-4).

   • 2005, Theodore William Moody, Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Francis X. Martin, A New History of Ireland - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 446:

     Likewise, the 'Cauldron of poesy' and 'Bretha Déin Chécht' both contain prose, rosc, and rhyming syllabic verse.

   • 2016, Maria Tymoczko, Translation in a Postcolonial Context, →ISBN:

     Until the last few decades, however, many of the roscada were interpreted as prose, but recent scholarship has suggested that most, if not all, are poems composed according to archaic metrical principles that had been largely superseded by the eighth century.

Anagrams

• CORS, CORs, OCRs, ORCs, ROCs, cors, orcs, rocs

Irish

Etymology 1

From Old Irish rosc (“eye”).

Noun

rosc m (genitive singular roisc, nominative plural roisc)

1. eye

Declension

Declension of rosc (first declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative rosc roisc vocative a roisc a rosca genitive roisc rosc dative rosc roisc forms with the definite article singular plural nominative an rosc na roisc genitive an roisc na rosc dative leis an rosc don rosc leis na roisc

Derived terms

• rinn roisc (“eyebright”)

Etymology 2

From Old Irish rosc (“short poem, ode”).

Noun

rosc m (genitive singular roisc, nominative plural roisc)

1. rhetorical composition, rhapsodical chant

Declension

Declension of rosc (first declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative rosc roisc vocative a roisc a rosca genitive roisc rosc dative rosc roisc forms with the definite article singular plural nominative an rosc na roisc genitive an roisc na rosc dative leis an rosc don rosc leis na roisc

Derived terms

• rosc catha (“battle-chant; war-cry”)
• rosc ceoil (“rhapsody”)

Descendants

• → English: rosc (learned)

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “rosc”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 rosc”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 rosc”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language