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Rote

.

To learn by rote is to learn by turning words round and round in the memory as a wheel. To “learn by heart” is to learn thoroughly (French, apprendre par cœur). Shakespeare speaks of the “heart of loss,” meaning entire loss, and to love with “all our heart” is to love thoroughly. (Latin, rota, a wheel.)

“Take hackneyʹd jokes from Milier got by rote.”


Byron: English Bards, etc.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Rosetta Stone (The)
Rosicrucians
Ross (Celtic)
Rosse
Rossel
Rossignol (French)
Rostrum
Rota or Rota Men
Rota Aristotelica (Aristotle’s wheel)
Rota Romana
Rote
Rothschild [Red Shield]
Rotten Row
Rotundity of the Belt (Washington Irving)
Roué
Rouen
Rouge (A)
Rouge Croix
Rouge Dragon
Rouge et Noir (French, red and black)
Rough-hewn