rhodo-

combining form

variants or before a vowel rhod-

: rose : red

rhodolite

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Greek, combining form of rhódon "rose" (Aeolic bródon), going back to *wrodon, probably borrowed, by uncertain mediation, from Old Iranian *u̯r̥da-, whence Sogdian wrδ "rose," Persian gul, and (as a loanword) Armenian vard

Note: For other possible Iranian forms see Encyclopaedia Iranica (on line) s.v. gol. Avestan varəδa-, attested once in the Nīrangestān, is of uncertain sense, but claimed to mean "rose" in some references. Speculative Indo-European etymologies are summarized by Harold Bailey in Dictionary of Khotan Saka (Cambridge, 1979) s.v. vala. In The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, Calvert Watkins, editor (Boston, 1985), the etymon is regarded as a loan from a non-Indo-European language. See also rose entry 2, julep.