Thing To Be Today: rosy.

To be rosy is to be pink with health.

This isn't possible for some of us - the health or the pinkness - but luckily there are other ways of being rosy.

To have a rosy outlook is to look forward with optimism and hope; if you have rosy slumbers they will be full of peace and joy.

Of course to be rosy also means being covered in roses, which would be uncomfortable and prickly, but perhaps there is a shirt or a skirt in your wardrobe which might do the trick.

The chief of all these rosy blessings, of course, is health, and the thoughts of all of us in The Word Den must be especially with those of us in China, South Korea, Japan, and Italy.

But here's wishing us all a rosy future, wherever we may be.

Thing To Be Today: rosy. This word has hardly changed down the millennia. The Greek form was rhodon, which you can still see in rhododendron, which means rose tree (even though of course it isn't).