ROSAMUND

Rosamund: translation

Rosamund f

English: from an old Germanic female personal name composed of the elements hros horse + mund protection. In the Middle Ages it was reanalysed as Latin rosa munda ‘pure rose’ or rosa mundi ‘rose of the world’, titles given to the Virgin Mary. The spelling Rosamond has been common since the Middle Ages, when scribes sometimes used o for u, to distinguish it from n and m, all of which consisted of very similar downstrokes of the pen. ‘Fair Rosamond’ (Rosamond Clifford) was a legendary beauty who lived at Woodstock in Oxfordshire in the 12th century. She is said to have been the mistress of King Henry II, and to have been murdered by the queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in 1176.