rose noble
[f. rose n. + noble n.1 2.]
1. A gold coin current in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, being a variety of the noble with the figure of a rose stamped upon it, and of varying value at different times and places. Obs. exc. Hist.
| 1473 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 64 A Franche croune and half a ross noble. 1488 Ibid. 90 Takin..the saim tyme, viij royse nobillis. 1494 Halyburton Ledger 51 A fardyn of a ros nobyll, price 3s. 4½g. 1507 Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 434 Thai prisit..the weicht of the Rose noble till tua merkis. 1553 Extr. Rec. Edinb. (1871) 274 Gevin to the provest for the wyld aventurs,..ane ross noble, iijli viijs. 1589 Wotton Lett. (1907) I. 235 In receiving my money at Stoade I took rose nobles after 20s. 4d. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. A 3, [The French] have thought to disgrace his whole storie, by calling him a Pensioner of England, and a man hired to write by the good Rose-nobles of England. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. 29/1 The Rose Noble..is also termed the Rose Royal, or the Royal of England. 1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4748/4 A Queen Elizabeth's Piece of 35s. 3 Rose Nobles. 1726–31 Tindal Rapin's Hist. Eng. (1743) II. xvii. 157 The double Rose-Noble, or Rose-Rial, which is a noble Medal. 1820 Scott Monast. xxix, The knight cut short his argument, by throwing the landlord a rose-noble. 1853 Humphreys Coin Collector's Man. II. 449 There was also the old noble, now called the ‘rose noble’, to distinguish it from the George noble which had been newly issued. 1888 Rider Haggard Col. Quaritch xli, There were Rose Nobles of Edward IV. |
| transf. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster v. iv, Capt. Philaster. Cry my Rose nobles, cry. All. Philaster. |
| attrib. a 1668 Davenant Man's the Master Epil., You men with bright rose-noble hair. 1695 in J. W. Drayton's Heroical Ep. A iv, All is Standard, all Rose-noble Gold. |
2. dial. or
local.
a. The hound's tongue (
Cynoglossum officinale).
b. The figwort,
esp. the knotted figwort (
Scrophularia nodosa).
| 1876– in Britten & Holland Eng. Plant-names. 1877 Hardwicke's Science Gossip 46/1 Scrophularia nodosa is known by the name of ‘rose-noble’. 1900 A. McIlroy Craiglinnie Burn ix, Salutary herbs, such as rosenoble, dandelion,..and hoarhound. |