Pink was not a common color in the fashion of the Middle Ages nobles usually preferred brighter reds, such as crimson. Roseus is the Latin word meaning ' rosy' or 'pink.' Lucretius used the word to describe the dawn in his epic poem On the Nature of Things ( De rerum natura). In the Odyssey, written in approximately 800 BCE, Homer wrote 'Then, when the child of morning, rosy-fingered dawn appeared.' Roman poets also described the color. The color pink has been described in literature since ancient times. It has survived to the current day in pinking shears, hand-held scissors that cut a zig-zagged line to prevent fraying. The verb 'to pink' dates from the 14th century and means 'to decorate with a perforated or punched pattern' (possibly from German picken, 'to peck'). The color pink is named after the flowers, pinks, flowering plants in the genus Dianthus, and derives from the frilled edge of the flowers. Rhodochrosite is one of the many pink gemstones.
