The disease known as rubella [ɹu.ˈbɛl.ə]
in English and rubéola or rubeola in Spanish is ‘a mild,
infectious, communicable viral disease, characterized by swollen glands, esp.
of the back of the head and neck, and small red spots on the skin’ (WNW). It is
caused by the rubella virus of the
genus rubivirus or the Togaviridae family. The most dangerous
thing about it is that it may result in ‘congenital defects in infants born to
mothers infected during the first three months of pregnancy’ (AHD). Other names
for this disease are German measles or
three-day measles, since it results
in a similar rash of red spots in the body.
Rubella is known in Spanish as rubéola, rubeola, or sarampión alemán, the latter being much
rarer and obviously a calque of the English name. Note that in English, rubeola is another word for regular (English) measles, not for German
measles or rubella, which is a
totally different disease.
The word rubella
is a late 19th century New Latin scientific name for this disease in English,
but not in other languages. It is derived from the neuter plural form of the Latin
adjective rŭbellus ‘reddish’
(fem. rŭbella), the
diminutive of ruber ‘red’ (rŭb‑ell‑us). It was no
doubt created on the pattern of the already existing word rubeola. Besides German measles, another earlier name for
the disease was rötheln, a borrowing
from German, used in the mid-19th century. In German, Rötheln was a
plural diminutive noun derived from the adjective rot (earlier roth) ‘red’
(Röth‑el‑n). The modern spelling
of this word in German is Röteln [ˈrøːtl̩n],
though Rubella is also used in
German. Spanish seems to have borrowed the word rubéola from French rubéole [ʀy.be.ˈɔl], derived in the mid-19th
century from Latin rubeus ‘red’ on
the model of existing French rougeole
and roséole (cf. Port. rubéola).[1]
The Latin adjective rŭber
meant ‘red, ruddy’, with an alternative regular form rŭbrus (the adjective’s feminine form was rŭbra, neuter rŭbrum; regular
root: rŭbr‑). Thus, the diminutive rŭbellus is not a regular derivation. Lat.
rŭber descends from Proto-Indo-European
*h₁rudʰrós ‘red’, from the root *h₁rewdʰ‑. Another word derived from the
adjective rŭber is the adjective
rŭbĕus
‘reddish’ (rŭb‑ĕ‑us),
from which comes patrimonial Sp. rubio
‘blond’ (rubia ‘blonde’). Also from
the Latin adjective rŭbĕus comes Fr. rouge [ˈʀuʒ], adjective and noun meaning ‘red (color)’. This word
has been borrowed into English as rouge
[ˈɹuʒ] to refer to ‘a
red powder or cream used as a cosmetic for coloring the cheeks or lips’ (COED).[2]
Derived from the same rŭbĕus
is the Lat. rubeola, the source of
the name for rubella in Spanish, rubéola or rubeola, and the source of the other name for measles in English, rubeola (see §34.3.26
above).
The rare Latin adjective rŭssus,
which also meant ‘red’ (fem. russa,
neut.: russum), is also derived from
the Proto-Indo-European root *h₁rewdʰ‑
‘red’ (*h₁rowdʰ-s-o-). This word is
usually said to be the source of Sp. rojo
[ˈro.xo], Fr. roux [ˈʀu] (fem. rousse
[ˈʀus]), It. rosso [ˈros.so], all basic adjectives meaning
‘red’ today. Actually, Sp. rojo is
more likely from the even rarer derived word rŭssĕus ‘reddish; bright red’ or else the Spanish word
would be roso, not rojo.
The word rojo is
unusual because although it seems like such a common patrimonial word, it is not
attested until the 16th century. That is because the normal name for the red
color in Old Spanish is bermejo. The
alternative words colorado and encarnado appear around the same time as
rojo. The reason seems to have been
that Sp. rojo was originally the word
for ‘reddish’, not for ‘red’, including the red in ‘red’ hair color. Hence the
compound pelirrojo/a, an adjective
meaning ‘red-haired, ginger-haired’ and a noun meaning ‘redhead’. The reason
for bringing the rare word rojo for
the basic color may have been influenced by other Romance languages.
[1] Actually, the French word rubéole was created in the mid-18th century
but with a different meaning, namely the name of the madder plant, ‘a southwest
Asian perennial plant (Rubia tinctorum) having small yellow flowers, whorled
leaves, and a red root’ (AHD).
[2] This mid-18th century loanword is one of the
rare words that ends in the sound [ʒ] in English.
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