Last week, in talking about the word novel, I mentioned that novels were previously referred to as romances, which of course set us up perfectly for this week’s Word. =)
Since around 1300, romance meant “a story, written or recited, of a knight, hero, etc.” Why were they called romance? Because they were told in the everyday, vernacular language of a place rather than in Latin, and romance was also the word used for everyday, vernacular French. This comes from the Vulgar Latin romanice scribere, “to write in a Romance language,” which is to, one derived from Latin. (I daresay most of us have heard of “the romance language” of Spanish, French, etc.)
By the 1660s, the literary definition had expanded to mean “a love story.” Interestingly though, it wasn’t applied to an out-of-literature love affair until 1916–who knew? Romance novels have only been a recognized genre in an of themselves since 1964.
Also interesting is that the verb, to romance someone, is only from 1934. Before that it meant “to invent fictitious love stories.”
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
Its look an interesting story and as it also belongs to romance and I ma a big fan of romance stories and always ready to read romance stories. I am so excited to download eBook copy for me so I can read this romance story.
How interesting! It's funny how technically recent the current meaning is, yet it's the only one most of us are really aware of.
Thanks for sharing! 😀
Alexa
thessalexa.blogspot.com
verbosityreviews.com
Wow! What a fun history behind the word! Thanks for sharing this!!
Interesting. 🙂