prickle

In common language the terms thorn and prickle are used more or less interchangeably, but in botanical terms, thorns are derived from shoots (so they can be branched or not, they can have leaves or not, and they arise from a bud), and prickles are derived from the epidermis

This is a picture labelled "Rose prickles" on Wikipedia


In this picture, a thorn is on the left, and a prickle on the right. The sharp things on roses are prickles to a botanist.



http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prickle

"Prick" is an Old English survival meaning a small, sharp pain, or source of discomfort. The second witch in Shakespeare's Macbeth signals the arrival of the title character when she says: By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.

Thank you for that, Tes. It's not everyday.....

I once read a story in an English newspaper about a court case brought by a woman who was suing a number of defendants jointly for defamation. She alleged that they had spread stories that she was promiscuous, each individual story not terribly serious, but the cumulative effect being very damaging to her reputation. This was an important legal point of her case. The judge helpfully and innocently suggested that she had suffered a "death of a thousand pricks" following which the case had to be adjourned for ten minutes so that everybody (judge, plaintiff, defendants, lawyers and jury) could stop laughing. I do not know the outcome.

Roses have thorns.

"Prickle" is not a good word for this, imho.
In fact, it's a kind of baby-language word. It's silly.

Tes I shall remember that one, tell my boys

Thank you all.

McTag, infantile or not, 'prickle' is the correct botanical term.

Okay.