rosary
rosary (in the Roman Catholic Church) a form of devotion in which five (or fifteen) decades of Hail Marys are repeated (a decade is a set of ten), each decade preceded by an Our Father and followed by a Glory Be; a string of beads for keeping count in such a devotion or in the devotions of some other religions, in Roman Catholic use 55 or 165 in number.
The word comes (in late Middle English, in the sense ‘rose garden’) from Latin rosarium rose-garden, from rosa ‘rose’. In the 16th century (from which this meaning dates) the word was also used as the title of a book of devotion.
The word comes (in late Middle English, in the sense ‘rose garden’) from Latin rosarium rose-garden, from rosa ‘rose’. In the 16th century (from which this meaning dates) the word was also used as the title of a book of devotion.
More From encyclopedia.com
NEARBY TERMS
rosary