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Main Entry: row·an
Pronunciation: \rau-ən, rō-ən\
Function: noun
Etymology: of Scandinavian origin; akin to Norwegian dialect raun rowan; akin to Old English rēad red; One form of Rowan comes from the Gaelic word for red, ruadh, and a Gaelic diminutive suffix, meaning “little red one.”

1: either of two mountain ashes with flat corymbs of white flowers followed by small red pomes: a: one (Sorbus aucuparia) native to Eurasia that has become naturalized in the United States and Canada b: one (South americana) native to the eastern U.S and Canada
2: the fruit of a rowan

Main Entry: -speak
Pronunciation: \-spēk\
Function: noun combining form
Etymology: newspeak
Used to form especially nonce words denoting a particular kind of jargon, i.e. <Californiaspeak>

Main Entry: row·an·speak
The potentially non-sensical, discombobulated writings in this journal, which express the mental meanderings of Rowan.

From Wikipedia: Rowan was carried on vessels to avoid storms, kept in houses to guard against lightning, and even planted on graves to keep the deceased from haunting.

Rowan is one of the most familiar wild trees in the British Isles, and has acquired numerous English folk names. The following are recorded folk names for the rowan: Delight of the eye (Luisliu), Quickbane, Quickbeam, Quicken (tree), Rune tree, Thor's helper, Whispering tree, Whitty, Wicken-tree, Wiggin, Wiggy, Witch wood, Witchbane, Witchen tree. Many of these can be easily linked to the mythology and folklore surrounding the tree.

One somewhat confusing name for the rowan, used in both the UK and North America, is "mountain ash", which implies that it is a species of ash (Fraxinus). The name arises from the superficial similarity in leaf shape of the two trees; in fact, the rowan does not belong to the ash family, but is closely related to the apples and hawthorns in the rose family.