# Ye Olde Primrose Path

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ye-olde-primrose-path/78093>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [August 25, 2001, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ye-olde-primrose-path/78093 "2001-08-25T14:47:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sea\_Sorbust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Sea\_Sorbust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sea_Sorbust)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ye-olde-primrose-path/78093/1 "2001-08-25T14:47:18Z")

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Heh. Heh. Heh. 😃

/s/ A Modern-day Avatar of “Bill”.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ye-olde-primrose-path/78093/2 "2001-08-25T16:37:17Z")

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Please remember to include a comment–er, I mean a link to the Staff Report.

[What’s the origin of “primrose path”?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mprimrose.html) by SDSTAFF Gaudere

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**Author:** ![Sea\_Sorbust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Sea\_Sorbust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sea_Sorbust)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ye-olde-primrose-path/78093/3 "2001-08-25T19:06:04Z")

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Sorry. It was early in the morning here. I was feeling fiesty. And frisky. And irreverant. I knew no better.

Will do right the next time. 🙂

(A very nice report. I _really_ enjoyed it.)

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ye-olde-primrose-path/78093/4 "2001-08-25T19:14:10Z")

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Don’t sweat it.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ye-olde-primrose-path/78093/5 "2001-08-25T22:49:50Z")

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**Gaudere** Where did you get this statement from–

> [@](#):
>
> primrose is popularly but erroneously thought to derive from prima rosa, “first rose”

?

My etymology dictionaries seem to think it does.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ye-olde-primrose-path/78093/6 "2001-08-25T23:34:08Z")

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There isn’t much agreement among my dictionaries.

[li]The SOED and AHD say it comes from Latin _prima rosa_, “first rose”[/li][li]Klein’s Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary says it’s from Latin _primula_, short for _primula veris_, “first of spring”.[/li][li]Dictionary of Word Origins by Joseph T. Shipley says it was earlier _primerols_ in English, from French _primverol_ from Italian _primavera_, “first of spring”.[/li]In modern French, the flower is called _primevère_, which the Petit Larousse says is from Latin _primo vere_ “at the beginning of spring.”

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**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ye-olde-primrose-path/78093/7 "2001-08-26T18:18:33Z")

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CKDex looked this up, too, when we were discussing this item:

> [@](#):
>
> Brewer says primrose is “a curious corruption” of the French primerole, name of the flower in Middle English. He says that this is from Latin primula; he says “prima rosa” or the first rose as origin is a popular error.
> 
> Partridge also cites Latin primus having the derivative primula, hence primerole to primerose.

My OED is packed up for a move in one of about 30 boxes and I am not about to dig through them to find it right now, but I recall it agreeing with Dex’s cites.

Thank you, SS. 🙂