Under The Rose

[Tim Ware]

The etymology has to do with the fact that Cupid or some such would offer a
rose to those who happened upon the indiscretions of the goddess Venus. The
rose was some sort of bribe to swear them to secrecy.

TW

On Thu, 13 Jun 1996, Brian D. McCary wrote:

> Just out of curiosity, does anyone know where the phrase "under the rose"
> comes from?  Not only is it the title of one of TRP's short stories,
> but it pops up early on in V:
> 
> "Profane had wondered then what it was with Da Conho and that machine
> gun.  Love for an object, this was new to him.  When he found out not long
> after this that the same thing was with Rachel and her MG, he had his first
> intelligence that something had been going on *under the rose*, maybe for
> longer than and with more people than he would care to think about."
> 
> My emphasis added.  I've never run across this phrase anywhere else.  
> Any hints?
> 
> Brian McCary
>