rosemary: [15] Originally, rosemary had no connection with either ‘roses’ or ‘Mary’. Etymologically it means ‘sea-dew’. It comes, probably via Old French rosmarin, from late Latin rōsmarīnum. This in turn was a conflation of Latin rōs marīnus, rōs meaning ‘dew’ and marīnus ‘of the sea’ (an allusion to the fact that the plant grew near sea coasts). The word originally entered English in the 14th century as rosmarine, but association with rose and Mary (the Virgin Mary, no doubt) led to its alteration to rosemary. => marine, mere, mermaid
