Naming
The name Monte Rosa comes from Italian, however rosa is derived from the Franco-Provençal dialect word rouese meaning "glacier". On old maps as late as 1740, the mountain was named Monte Bosa and even Monte Biosa by the inhabitants of Val Sesia. The name Mon Boso which appears in Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks very likely designated the same mountain. From Zermatt the mountain was formerly known under the name Gornerhorn (in German, lit. Large mountain). The name gorner is still used for the western ridge that is thrown out from the main mass (Gornergrat) and the glacier that lies at its foot (Gornergletscher) but not used for the mountain itself anymore.
The summit is distinguished by the name Dufourspitze (in German, lit. Dufour Peak; Italian: Punta Dufour, French: Pointe Dufour). This replaced the former name Höchste Spitze (in German, lit. Highest Peak) that was indicated on the Swiss maps before the Federal Council, on January 28, 1863, decided to rename the mountain in honor of Guillaume-Henri Dufour. Dufour was a Swiss engineer, topographer, co-founder of the Red Cross and army officer who led the Sonderbund campaign. This decision followed the completion of the Dufour Map, a series of military topographical maps created under the command of Dufour.
The Dufourspitze is the summit of the Monte Rosa massif, which consists also of the Nordend (4609m), the Zumsteinspitze (4563m) and the Signalkuppe (4554m).
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Famous quotes containing the word naming:
“The night is itself sleep
And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Husband,
who am I to reject the naming of foods
in a time of famine?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul—half a drop! ah, my Christ!—
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!—
Yet will I call on him!—O, spare me, Lucifer!—
Where is it now? ‘T is gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!—
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)