rosin

▪ I. ˈrosin, n.
    (ˈrɒzɪn)
    Forms: α. 4–6 rosyn, 5 roosyn, 6 rosing, 4, 6– rosin, 7–8 rozin. β. 4–6 rosyne (5 ross-), 4–7 rosine, 7 rozine. γ. 4 roseyne, 6 -eyn; 5 ros(s)ene. δ. 6 roasen, rossen, 6–8 rosen, rozen, 7 rozzen. ε. 6 rosome, 9 dial. rosum.
    [An alteration of resin n. Further alterations are rosil and roset. For the change of vowel, which appears also in Anglo-L. rosina, cf. OF. roisin (G. rosine, Du. rozijn, Da. rosin) as a variant of raisin.]
    1. a. = resin n.; spec., this substance in a solid state obtained as a residue after the distillation of oil of turpentine from crude turpentine.
    The colour of the product (yellow, brown, or black) depends on the continuation of the heat employed.

α a 1350 St. Lucy 183 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 19 Pik and rosyn he bad in cast, And oyle, to ger þe fire brin fast. 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xxvii. 17 Bawm, and hony, and oyle, and rosyn. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 132 An entreet maad of .ij. parties of whiȝt rosyn, & oon partie of wex. 1496 Naval Accs. Hen. VII (1896) 174 Laying on of piche, Rosyn & talow uppon the seid ship. c 1550 Disc. Common Weal. Eng. (1893) 246 Tarre, pitche, rosing whereof we haue none at all. 1570 Levins Manip. 134/15 Rosin, resina. 1611 Bible Song Holy Children 22 To make the ouen hote with rosin, pitch, towe, and small wood. 1660 Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. Proem 11 A melted Cement, made of Pitch, Rosin, and Wood-ashes. 1712 E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 204 A sort of Rozin, which is good for curing of Wounds. 1779 Phil. Trans. LXX. 17 The powder of rosin will be attracted by those parts only of the electro⁓phorus, which are electrified positively. 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing, etc. vii. 400 A solution of rosin or fine Burgundy pitch in pure spirit of wine. 1865 Kingsley Herew. x, They wore coats stiffened with tar and rosin. 1873 E. Spon Workshop Rec. Ser. i. 346/2 Black Rosin is an important article in the composition of good [printing-] ink.

β 1367–8 Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 386 In sex libris de rosine, 20d. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 200 Thei go be nyhte unto the Myne With pich, with soulphre and with rosine. 1454 Cal. Rec. Dublin (1889) I. 283 No maner of man dwellynge in the said cite shulde..by salte, ire, pych, rosyne, collys. 1551 Turner Herbal (1568) 30 The small leues in the top broused or broken sauour lyke rosyne. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. xxviii. 285 Liquors, oiles, gummes, and rozines. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage viii. xii. (1614) 803 All whiche they mingled together with..the fume of Rosine. 1681 Rosine [see resin n. 2].

γ 1390 Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 64 Pro melle, lynesede,..roseyne. 1465 Waterf. Arch. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. V. 302 Yren, pitche, rosene, nor tarre. 1485 Cely Papers (Camden) 181 Paid be hym for a qwartt of rossene, xjd. 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1539) 58 They be somtyme made with roseyn. 1548 ― Dict. s.v. Cedria, The roseyn that renneth out of the great cedre tree.

δ 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 78 A vessel of bras..Full of pyche, rosen oyle and smere. 1516 Galway Arch. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. V. 397 Pich, canvas, rossen. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 109 Vessels, calcked with roasen smearye. 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. iii. iv, My fiddlestick wants rozzen. 1651 Biggs New Disp. ¶126 Aloes by ablution looseth the juice, and there remaineth a meer rozen. 1742 J. Yarrow Love at First Sight 98 A piece of Rozen, and two Yards of Catgut. 1779 Phil. Trans. LXX. 16 Some powder of rosen..is shaken upon the electrophorus.

ε 1541–2 in Swayne Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896) 269 A Torche of Rosome weynge ix li. ij s. iij d. 1872 Schele de Vere Americanisms 536 Rosum is a common corruption of rosin, which is almost universally pronounced ros'm by the mass of the people. 1880 W. Cornw. Gloss., Rosum, rosin.

    b. With a and pl. A particular kind of rosin.

1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. xxviii. 285 Liquors, oiles, gummes, and rozines, which come from divers plants and hearbes. 1672–3 Grew Anat. Pl. ii. iii. (1682) 67 In the dryed Root of Angelica, &c. being split, the Milk..appeareth,..condensed to a hard and shining Rosin. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 7 The former is the case of chrystallized Salts, Rosins, and the like.

    c. slang. (a) Alcoholic drink. Cf. rosin v. 2. (b) A fiddler, a violinist; also, rosin-the-bow.

1734 Select Trials I. 227/1 Says I to the Gentleman, I hope, Sir, you won't forget your Coachman—a little Rozzam wou'd do very well. Ibid., Rosin, strong Drink: A Metaphor first used among Fidlers. 1864 Hotten Slang Dict. 215 Rosin, beer or other drink given to musicians at a dancing party. Ibid., Rosin-the-bow, a fiddler. 1901 F. E. Taylor Folk-Speech S. Lancashire, Rozzin, a jocular term for musician's drink. 1904 S. Watson Wops the Waif (1924) iii. 9/1 A short, lame man,..with a violin beneath his arm, suggesting the identity with the ‘rosin’ announced.

    2. attrib. and Comb., as rosin boiler, rosin candle, rosin-distiller, rosin-flux, rosin gas, rosin size, rosin soap; rosin-weeping adj.; rosin-back Circus slang, (a) a horse used by a bareback rider or acrobat; (b) a bareback rider; rosin-end (see quot.); † rosin flower, a pine tree; rosin oil, plant, rose, tin (see quots.); rosin-tree, a South African shrub (Cineraria resinifera), which exudes resin; rosin-weed, U.S., the compass plant (Silphium laciniatum).

1923 C. R. Cooper Under Big Top 170 She is trained to the ‘*rosinback’, as the ring horse is called. 1931 Amer. Mercury Nov. 353/2 Rosinbacks, bareback riders. 1933 P. Godfrey Back-Stage xvii. 213 One of the least spectacular, yet most difficult, tasks is to train the trick-rider's horse, or ‘rosin-back’. These horses are massive Flemish animals, capable of supporting on their broad backs several performers at a time. 1945 C. B. Cochran Showman looks On iii. 33 A ‘rosin-back’ is a ring-horse used by bareback riders... Rosin is rubbed into the horse's back to help the rider to get a firm footing as he jumps from the ring on to the horse. 1974 V. Canning Painted Tent iii. 51 There were a few horses in the stable, a couple of rosin backs and a small black pony.

1880 J. Dunbar Pract. Papermaker 54 Cubic contents of small *rosin boiler.

1611 Cotgr. s.v. Chandelle, Chandelles de Buchs, *rosen candles, vsed by the poorer sort of people neere vnto Bourdeaux.

1885 List of Subscribers, Classified (United Telephone Co.) (ed. 6) 207 Tar, *rosin, benzole and naphtha distillers.

1828 Carr Craven Gloss., *Rosin-end, a shoe-maker's waxed or rosinned thread.

c 1611 Chapman Iliad xi. 434 As when a torrent..beares blasted Oakes, and witherd *rosine flowres,..into the Oceans force.

1960 Cooke & Marcus Electronics & Nucleonics Dict. 410/2 Rosin-core solder, solder made up in tubular or other hollow form, with the inner space filled with *rosin flux to serve as a noncorrosive flux for soldering joints. 1976 S9 (N.Y.) May/June 101/3 For electronics work only rosin flux is used as it is non-corrosive.

1839 Ure Dict. Arts 562 *Rosin gas is cheaper than oil gas.

1866 Treas. Bot. 807/2 Oil, *Rosin, an oil obtained from the resin of the pine-tree, used by painters for lubricating machinery, and other purposes.

1856 A. Gray Man. Bot. (1860) 209 Silphium, *Rosin-Plant. Heads many-flowered, radiate.

1886 Britten & Holland, *Rosin Rose. Hypericum calycinum, L., and H. perforatum, L., the smell of which is supposed to resemble that of rosin. Yks.

1880 J. Dunbar Pract. Papermaker 55 Take..10 gallons of the thick prepared *rosin size.

1839 Ure Dict. Arts 1144 Of Yellow or *Rosin Soap.

1867 Brande & Cox Dict. Sci., etc. III. 310/2 *Rosin Tin, a miner's name for pale-coloured translucent Tinstone with a resinous lustre.

1815 Anne Plumptre tr. Lichtenstein's Trav. S. Africa II. 176 A shrub, which grows from two feet to three feet and a half high, called by the colonists harpuisbosjes, the *rosin tree.

1834 Schoolcraft Exped. 297 Among the flowers, the plant called *rosin-weed attracts attention by its gigantic stature.

1608 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. Decay 970 With a Pole of *rozen-weeping Fir.

▪ II. rosin, v.
    (ˈrɒzɪn)
    Forms: 5 rossyen, 6 roson, 7 rosen, rosin, rozen, 7–8 rozin, 9 U.S. rosum.
    [f. the n.]
    1. trans. To smear over, or seal up, with rosin; to rub (esp. a violin bow or string) with rosin.

1497 Naval Accs. Hen. VII (1896) 294, C weight Rosyn to Rossyen the seid Ship abouewater. 1588 Lambarde Eiren. iv. iv. 461 Well sewed with threed well twisted, waxed and rosoned. 1624 Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons (1860) App. p. liv, To the tinker for new rozening and mending 13 black jackes and 2 botles. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. i. 240 Those, who make musick with so harsh an instrument, need to have their bow well rosend before. 1756 Connoisseur No. 128 ¶4 Not one of these people will open their mouths, or rosin a single string, without being very well paid for it. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 175 [Place layers,] till the jar is full, then bung and rosin it. 1896 Lumsden Poems 43 He screwed her up wi' conscious pride And rosin'd her.

absol. 1607 Dekker & Marston Westw. Hoe D.'s Wks. 1873 II. 341 They are but rozining, sir, and theile scrape themselues into your company presently.

fig. 1650 B. Discollim. 34 My..heart-strings are grown so feeble, that if I should not rozen them now and then (with a little mirth) they would soone crack quite asunder.

    2. fig. To supply with liquor; to make drunk; also intr., to indulge in drink. Now dial.

1729 Fielding Pleasures Town iii. i, A fiddlestick is a drunkard: Why? Because it loves ros'ning. 1828 Carr Craven Gloss., Rosinned, drunk. ‘He war purely rosinn'd.’ 1869– in dialect glossaries (Northumbld., Lanc., Linc.).

Oxford English Dictionary