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WORD OF THE DAY..........courtesy of Dictionary.com
ifyoucantfixit:
primrose \PRIM-rohz\, noun:
1. Pale yellow.
2. Any plant of the genus Primula, as P. vulgaris (English primrose), of Europe, having yellow flowers, or P. sinensis (Chinese primrose), of China, having flowers in a variety of colors. Compare primrose family.
3. Evening primrose.
The thoughts circling Sarah's head kept time with the rhythm of her spoon as she stirred the pale-primrose mixture of egg yolks and cream in the pan.
-- India Grey, Powerful Italian, Penniless Housekeeper
The room was high and white and primrose gold, flanked by Greek columns that caught the lickety amber light of a thousand candles.
-- Don DeLillo, Underworld
Primrose literally meant "first rose" in Old French. It was so called because the yellow rose is one of the earliest blooming roses in the Spring
ifyoucantfixit:
celadon \SEL-uh-don\, noun:
1. A pale gray-green.
2. Any of several Chinese porcelains having a translucent, pale green glaze.
3. Any porcelain imitating these.
adjective:
1. Having the color celadon.
The detail was striking and the cream, salmon, and celadon of the offset colors realistic, if slightly dated.
-- David Foster Wallace, The Pale King
Far out, the bay had a glaze like celadon.
-- Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose
The word celadon stems from the name of a character in the 1610 book L'Astrée by Honoré d'Urfé. The character Céladon was a sentimental lover who wore bright green clothes.
ifyoucantfixit:
cerise \suh-REES\, noun:
moderate to deep red.
That it did not strike her, Molly Notkin, as improbable that the special limited-edition turkey-shaped gift bottle of Wild Turkey Blended Whiskey-brand distilled sprits with the cerise velveteen gift-ribbon around its neck with the bow tucked under its wattles on the kitchen counter...
-- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
It was made of a purple satin sheath with layers of cerise tarleton underskirts.
-- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Cerise comes from the French word of the same spelling meaning "cherry." It entered English in the 1850s describing a shade of cherry red.
ifyoucantfixit:
heliotrope \HEE-lee-uh-trohp\, noun:
1. A light tint of purple; reddish lavender.
2. Any hairy plant belonging to the genus Heliotropium, of the borage family, as H. arborescens, cultivated for its small, fragrant purple flowers.
3. Any of various other plants, as the valerian or the winter heliotrope.
4. Any plant that turns toward the sun.
5. Surveying. An arrangement of mirrors for reflecting sunlight from a distant point to an observation station.
6. Bloodstone.
But the heliotrope envelope with the feminine handwriting and the strange odor immediately suggested queries along lines of investigation which had never before entered her thoughts.
-- George Gibbs, The Vagrant Duke
Blown by steady volumes of roaring wind, everyone's hair is riffled and tangled and leaping in antic wisps, and the heliotrope robes bulk like tumors but flip up in sudden swoops.
-- Edmund White, Forgetting Elena
Heliotrope literally meant "turn towards the sun" in Greek. Flowers that turned towards the sun became associated with this word.
ifyoucantfixit:
ecru \EK-roo\, adjective:
1. Very light brown in color, as raw silk, unbleached linen, etc.
noun:
1. An ecru color.
To complete the outfit, she selected an ecru cashmere sweater to drape over her shoulders and tie loosely around her neck.
-- Pamela Hackett Hobson, The Bronxville Book Club
She was wearing an ecru gown, giving the illusion of her fading into the grayness of the wall.
-- JoAnn Smith Ainsworth, Out of the Dark
Ecru stems from the French word of the same spelling which meant "raw, unbleached." It came from the Latin root crudus meaning "raw" and the prefix es- meaning "thoroughly."
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