Flora Osete facts for kids

Florentina Osete Casas (born 1883), also known as Flora Osete, was a Spanish expert in words, a translator, and a writer. She helped create the Gran diccionario de la lengua castellana (Great Dictionary of the Spanish Language) from 1902 to 1932.

About Flora Osete

We don't know much about Flora Osete's life. What we do know comes from an old encyclopedia called Encyclopaedia Espasa.

She studied in Cartagena and Barcelona. In Barcelona, she wrote for fashion magazines like El Salón de la Moda. She also translated books from French and English into Spanish.

Her most famous translation was Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner. This translation was signed "Flora Ossette." People think her husband, José Pérez Hervás, might have done most of the work on this one.

Flora married José Pérez Hervás in 1910. They had four children: a son named José and three daughters named Magdalena, Ángela, and Florita.

She worked with her husband on some projects, including the big Spanish dictionary. The name "Ossette" was a special artistic touch used by her family. Her daughters, who formed a music group, called themselves Preziossette. This name combined "Pérez" (her husband's last name) and "Ossette." Her daughter Ángela, who was a composer and pianist, also used the name Pérez Ossette.

Her Translations

Flora Osete's first translation was A Sportsman's Sketches by Ivan Turgenev in 1914. She signed it with her initials, FO.

Her husband, José Pérez Hervás, used her name, "Flora Ossette," for the translation of Woman and Labour. At that time, it was sometimes helpful for books to have a woman's name on the cover. This was especially true for books that appealed to people interested in women's rights. It was a way to make the book more popular and sell more copies.

Working on the Great Dictionary

Flora Osete was a co-author of the Gran diccionario de la lengua castellana. This dictionary was first started by Anicet de Pagès. The first two parts came out in 1902 and 1904.

After Pagès passed away in 1902, another person, Miguel Mir, took over. But Mir also passed away in 1912. So, the dictionary project needed someone new to lead it.

Flora's husband, José Pérez Hervás, took charge of the dictionary. Flora and José worked together on the third part of the dictionary. They wrote many entries, which are the words and their definitions.

They continued their work on the fourth and fifth parts of the dictionary. In total, they wrote 511 entries. Flora Osete wrote 244 of these entries herself. She often focused on new or made-up words.

Because of her work, Flora Osete became a very important person in the world of dictionaries in the 20th century. She helped record many new words that were just starting to be used. The Royal Spanish Academy, a very important group for the Spanish language, included this dictionary in its collection of language works.

See also

In Spanish: Flora Osete para niños