Rosehips

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Fleshy fruits of wild rose plants known for their high vitamin content are often used in health products, teas, and herbal remedies
2. The seed pods produced by wild roses, rich in vitamins, are utilized in herbal medicine and to make beverages
3. The round, fleshy fruits that develop from the rose flower after it has bloomed and fallen off

Etymology: "Rosehips" is the plural of "rosehip", a compound of "rose" and "hip". The "hip" is the fleshy, berry-like fruit that forms on a rose bush after its flowers fade, and the word is a plain combination of the two ordinary English nouns rather than a borrowing or a coinage with a specific inventor. The "hip" part is the older and more surprising element. In Old English, "hiópe" named the fruit of the dog rose, and the same word survives in the name of the human hip, which is a different sense that developed separately. Gardeners and foragers have long used the fruit to describe the rose's seed-bearing structure, so the compound simply names the rose's fruit by putting the two words side by side.