English

An example of rosemaling at the Udval Stave Church in Udval, Norway

Noun

rosemaling ‎(uncountable)

1. (US) A Norwegian style of stylized floral decoration with scrollwork and geometric elements. [from 1940s.]
   • 1957, Sons of Norway, volume 54, Minneapolis, Minn.: Grand Lodge, Sons of Norway, OCLC 2253928, page 209:

     Rosemaling is the most recent of the Norwegian peasant crafts.

   • 1989, Marion J. Nelson, “Folk Art in Minnesota and the Case of the Norwegian American”, in Circles of Tradition: Folk Arts in Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn.: Published for the University of Minnesota Art Museum by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, ISBN 978-0-87351-239-8, page 38:

     The recent ethnic and arts and crafts revivals are reflected directly in what has happened among the Norwegians in Minnesota. For them the movement began with rosemaling, which in Minnesota has roots going back to about 1940. No rosemaling was done in Minnesota previously on which to base the movement. It was a direct extension of a slightly earlier rosemaling revival in Wisconsin, […]

   • 2006, Philip Nusbaum, “Rosemaling”, in Richard Sisson, Christian Zacher, and Andrew [R. L.] Cayton, editors, The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, ISBN 978-0-253-34886-9, page 410:

     Among the traditions the immigrants [from Norway to the US Upper Midwest] brought with them was rosemaling, decorative painting of stylized flowers and scrolls, with occasional figures. Originally painted onto the interior walls of peasant homes in Norway, rosemaling also adorned furniture, such as the Amerika trunks the immigrants used for storing valuables over their ocean voyages to the New World.

Alternative forms

• rosemåling (from Nynorsk)

Derived terms

• rosemaled
• rosemaler

References

• “rosemaling” (US) / “rosemaling” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From rose +‎ maling

Noun

rosemaling f, m ‎(definite singular rosemalinga or rosemalingen, indefinite plural rosemalinger, definite plural rosemalingene)

1. Rosemaling.

References

• “rosemaling” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From rose +‎ maling

Noun

rosemaling f ‎(definite singular rosemalinga, indefinite plural rosemalingar, definite plural rosemalingane)

1. Alternative form of rosemåling.

References

• “rosemaling” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.