† rosiclern.

Etymology: < Spanish rosicler red silver, ruby silver ore (1507, also as rochicler ; late 15th cent. as rruisecler , rusicler , rrosicler ), earliest denoting a type of red translucent enamel, and later red silver, ruby silver ore, and a light rose red colour, also (1555 as Rosicler ) as the name of a knight in the text translated in quot. 1578 at sense 1; further etymology uncertain, perhaps < Middle French rouge cler , denoting a type of red translucent enamel (1351; probably < rouge red (see rouge adj. and n.¹) + cler , clair clear adj.). Compare Catalan †rogecler, †rogicler (both early 15th cent.), †rochicler (late 15th cent.), Portuguese rosicler (1619), and also (probably < Spanish) French †rossicler (1723), †rosicler (1762), †rosiclaire (1780).Alternatively, J. Corominas Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (1981) at rosa has suggested that Spanish rosicler (in its earliest form †rochicler ) is immediately < Catalan †rogicler , †rogecler , and that this word is ultimately a borrowing of Arabic rahj al-ġār realgar n. (with labialization of a between r and h in the first element of the Arabic word, and folk-etymological alteration of its second element after an unattested Spanish Arabic loan < Spanish claro or Catalan clar clear adj.). However, this ulterior etymology is both phonologically problematic and difficult to justify in terms of semantic motivation, since borrowings of Arabic rahj al-ġār were already established as the name of this mineral in Catalan and Spanish (see forms cited at realgar n.).