rosemaling

The story

1. Norwegian Nynorsk · borrowed fromrosemåling
2. Middle Low German · derived frommālen“to paint”
3. Norwegian Bokmål · borrowed fromrosemaling“rose painting”
4. English todayrosemaling

Borrowed from Norwegian Bokmål rosemaling (“rose painting”), from rose (“rose”) + maling (“painting”) (from male (“to paint”) (cognate with Old Danish malæ (Danish male), Old Norse mála, Old Swedish mala (Swedish mala), from Middle Low German mālen (“to paint”)) + -ing (suffix used to form nouns from verbs)). The form rosemåling is borrowed from Norwegian Nynorsk rosemåling with unadapted script.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 1940s. A Norwegian style of stylized floral decoration with scrollwork and geometric elements.