Roseus is the Latin word meaning ' rosy' or 'pink.' Lucretius used the word to describe the dawn in his epic poem On the Nature of Things ( De rerum natura). In the Odyssey, written in approximately 800 BCE, Homer wrote 'Then, when the child of morning, rosy-fingered dawn appeared.' Roman poets also described the color. The color pink has been described in literature since ancient times.
The verb 'pink' continues to be reflected today as the name of hand-held scissors that cut a zig-zagged line to prevent fraying that are referred to as pinking shears. Pink rarely appears in nature, which is why it was first used as a noun to refer to a color in the 17th century. The verb 'to pink' dates from the 14th century and means 'to decorate with a perforated or punched pattern' (possibly from German picken, 'to peck'). The color pink is named after the flowers, pinks, flowering plants in the genus Dianthus, and derives from the frilled edge of the flowers. Pink and white together symbolize youth, tenderness and innocence.
