A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Ros, gen.sg. roris (s.m.III; also n.), abl.sg. rore, nom.& acc. pl. rores [when neuter, roar]: dew, any dripping moisture; damp; “not always clearly distinguished from rain-water; applied to light rain; applied to the water of rivers, the sea, etc., esp. as sprayed, splashed), applied to tears, to blood etc.” (after Glare) = Gk. drosos, q.v., fem. noun, ‘dew’;

- herbae gemmantes rore recenti, herbs bejeweled with fresh (recent) dew.

- gutta roris antelucani, a drop of morning dew.

- “ros marinus, marinus ros, or in one word, rosmarinus and in a neutr. rosmarinum: ‘rosemary’” (Lewis & Short).

- quæ ubi attrectantur, ob rorem undique adhærentem veluti in mucorem invicem collabuntur & guttis stillantibus quasi in aquam resoluta apparent (Dill.) which [n.pl. = filaments] whenever they are touched, due to the dripping moisture clinging everywhere, mutually this way and that, they collapse together, for example into a mucous substance, and they appear, with dripping drops, as if dissolved in water.

– thermometrum aestate a 26 gradibus usque ad 32 ascendit, sed calores ventis circa horam nonam matutinis e mare spirantibus nocturnisque roribus temperantur (Desf.), the thermometer in summer rises from 26 degrees to 32 [degrees], but the heats are regulated by the morning winds around the nineth hour blowing from the sea, and by the night damps [i.e. dews]. .

NOTE: perhaps the spray of the sea is implied in ‘rora’ in the following passages of Agardh (algae):

- [algae] ad saxa emersa, rora undarum irrigata, a luce subabscondita utriusque maris (Agardh), on emergent stones, wetted [i.e. doused] by the spray of the waves, somewhat hidden from the light in both seas.

- Hab. ad lapides rora undarum superfusos (Agardh), it grows on rocks spreadout [in the spray [i.e. splash]] of the waves; see ros, gen.sg. roris.

- mare apertum amant Florideae, rupes tamen a luce et vehementissimo fluxu absconditas praecipue inhabitantes; emersas et rora maris fere tantum irrigatas Catenellam, Polysiphoniam obscuram, Chondrum Grifflthsiae et Gelidium ustulatitum legi (Agardh), the Florideae love the open sea, yet primarily inhabiting rocks hidden from the light and the most powerful current; I have collected Catenella, Polysiphonia obscura, Chondrum Griffithsiae and Gelidum ustulatitum emergent and almost barely wetted by the spray of the sea.

Ros-solis, ‘dew of the sun;’ Sundew, = genus Drosera,-ae (s.f.I), > Gk. droseros, ‘dewy;’ see drosos.

DROSERA.* Ros solis Tournef. 127. (Linn.; Genera Plantarum).

NOTE: the genus name “Rorella” in the Droseraceae may be a diminutive of ‘ros.’

NOTE that the genus Rorippa Scop. in the Cruciferae is derived from an Old Saxon word, Rorippen, which is often "unjustifiably altered to Roripa" (Fernald 1950) perhaps under some association with ros.