piceous

en-adj

piceous (comparative more piceous, superlative most piceous)

more piceous (comparative)
most piceous (superlative)

From Latin piceus (“like pitch; pitch-black”) + -ous (suffix forming adjectives denoting possession or presence of a quality). Piceus is derived from pix (“pitch, tar”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peyH- (“fat; milk”)) + -eus (suffix forming adjectives indicating the sources of attributes). The English word is cognate with Italian piceo (“like pitch; of a dark brown colour”), Spanish piceo (“like pitch; of a dark brown colour”).

cog

I do not therefore require of you to believe, that the ancient rocks and compact bodies were diſſolved, but that many new ones were formed by the deluge, which had incloſed the ſpoils of the ſea within them. [...] What other rational account will you give of that ſhell of a nautilus, which was found buried in a ſtratum of a piceous ſubstance below the bed of the river Arbis, where Artaxerxes commanded a bridge to be built over it?

1741, Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke et al., “Letter XCIX. Otanes, Chief Architect and Superintendent of the Royal Places, to Cleander.”, in Athenian Letters: or, The Epistolary Correspondence of an Agent of the King of Persia, Residing at Athens during the Peloponnesian War. […], London: James Bettenham, →OCLC; Athenian Letters: … In Two Volumes, new edition, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell Jun. and W[illiam] Davies […], 1798, →OCLC, page 425:

(obsolete, rare) Of or pertaining to pitch (“a sticky, dark brown substance obtained from distilling turpentine or wood tar, or crude oil or tar”); having a quality like pitch; pitchlike, pitchy.

piceo

of or pertaining to pitch; having a quality like pitch

piceous:

Piciroſtris. Oblong, black: ſilvery-ſilky: ſnout half way and legs piceous.

1806, Charles Linné [i.e., Carl Linnaeus], William Turton, A General System of Nature, through the Three Grand Kingdoms of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, […] In Seven Volumes, volume II (Animal Kingdom), part I (Insects), London: Printed [by Dewick & Clarke] for Lackington, Allen, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 215:

The colour of the upper part is a mixture of yellowish-white and piceous disposed in dots, exactly resembling mosaic work, [...]

1828 June 17, Thomas Bell, “VII. Description of a New Species of Agama, Brought from the Columbia River by Mr. [David] Douglass.”, in The Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, volume XVI, London: Printed by Richard Taylor, […]; and by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, […]; and William Wood, […], published 1833, →OCLC, pages 105–106:

Abdomen with shining cinereous tomentum, and with five lines of piceous spots; [...] Tibiæ piceous towards the tips; tarsi piceous.

1868 February 6, Andrew Murray, “On an Undescribed Light-giving Coleopterous Larva (Provisionally Named Astraptor illuminator)”, in The Journal of the Linnean Society. Zoology, volume X, London: Sold at the [Linnean] Society [of London]’s apartments, […]; and by Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, and Williams and Norgate, published 1870, →OCLC, paragraph 16, page 90:

Front and middle legs yellow, coxae black behind, femora piceous posteriorly; [...]

1940 September, R. A. Cushman, A Review of the Parasitic Wasps of the Ichneumonid Genus Exenterus Hartig (United States Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publication; no. 354), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 12:

Agabus elongatus [...] Legs rufous; metafemur piceous.

1995, Anders N. Nilsson, Mogens Holmen, “Subfamily Colymbetinae”, in N. P. Kristensen, editor, The Aquatic Adephagia (Coleoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark. II. Dytiscidae (Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica), volume 32, Leiden, New York, N.Y.: E[vert] J[an] Leiden, →ISBN, →ISSN, paragraph 95, page 110:

From the year of its establishment, darkness seemed to have found a home in Beet College. Dark pink for the brick buildings, dark green for the doorjambs and the benches, dark iron for the hinges, dark stone for Nathaniel's Tomb; darkness in the piceous roots of trees that broke through the earth like bones through skin.

2008, Roger Rosenblatt, chapter 1, in Beet: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Ecco Press, →ISBN:

Gyrophaenia uteana Casey [...] [H]ead piceous, pronotum dark rufo-testaceous to piceous; elytra reddish-brown with sutural region and posterior angles piceous, abdomen yellowish- or reddish-brown, apical portion often darker, piceous; [...]

2018, Jan Klimaszewski et al., “Tribe Homalotini Heer, 1839”, in Aleocharine Rove Beetles of Eastern Canada (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae): A Glimpse of Megadiversity, Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, paragraph 162, page 378:

(chiefly entomology) Resembling pitch in colour; a very dark brown.


jack-a-dandy

(New Zealand) A small patch of light reflected from a shiny surface onto another surface such as a wall or ceiling.


lightful

en-adj

lightful (comparative more lightful, superlative most lightful)

more lightful (comparative)
most lightful (superlative)

From light (“not weighed down”, adjective) + -ful (“full of, having”, adjective).


moonling

From moon + -ling. Compare moon-related origins of lunacy and lunatic.

A shy moonling hangs on the suit of an astronaut and is taken back to earth.

1981, Ruth Beall Heinig, Lyda Stillwell, Creative Drama for the Classroom Teacher, page 248:

For a given walking speed, will an earthling astronaut or a moonling do less, equal, or more work when taking a stroll on the Moon, and by what factor?

2010, Michael M. Domach, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering, page 204:

This, together with the 'balloon manufactured entirely of dirty newspaper' in which the dwarf/moonling descends at the tale's opening, points to some self-referential satire on behalf of Poe, a newspaperman himself.

2016, Adam Roberts, The History of Science Fiction, page 142:

(science fiction) Someone from the Moon.


Naples yellow

en-noun

Naples yellow (countable and uncountable, plural Naples yellows)

Naples yellow:


antimony yellow

antimony yellow (countable and uncountable, plural antimony yellows)


tenné

tenné:

(heraldry) A rarely-used tincture of orange or bright brown.


tenné

Arms : Quarterly of eight , I or a lion rampant tenné, on a chief sable three escallops or, 2 azure a tower domed argent, 3 barry or and gules,[…]

1985, Stained Glass Before 1700 in American Collections: Corpus Vitrearum Checklist:


apricate

en-verb

apricate (third-person singular simple present apricates, present participle apricating, simple past and past participle apricated)

apricates (present singular third-person)
apricating (participle present)
apricated (participle past)
apricated (past)

From Latin apricus (“sunny, having lots of sunshine; warmed by the sun”) + -ate. Apricus is derived from aperiō (“to open; to uncover”) (from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo (“off, from”) + *h₂wer- (“to cover, shut”)) + -cus (suffix forming relational adjectives from nouns). Not cognate with apricot, although the latter term was also influenced by apricus.

der

to disinfect and freshen by exposing to the sun

Cats like to apricate.

From the top of this gatehouse was a most pleasant and delightful prospect as is to be seen. His Lordship [Sir Thomas More] was wont to recreate himself in this place to apricate and contemplate, and his little dog with him.

1697, [John Aubrey], “Sir Thomas More”, in [Charles Henry Wilson], editor, The Polyanthea: Or, A Collection of Interesting Fragments, in Prose and Verse: […] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for J. Budd, […], published 1804, →OCLC, page 149:

[…] I rubbed my eyes, doubting the very evidence of my own eyesight—a or the huge man in his shirt-sleeves; yes, positively not sunning but mooning himself—apricating himself in the occasional moonbeams; and, as if simple star-gazing from a sedentary station were not sufficient on such a night, absolutely pursuing his astrological studies, I repeat, in his shirt-sleeves!

1839 July, “the English Opium-eater” [pseudonym; Thomas De Quincey], “Lake Reminiscences, from 1807 to 1830. No. IV.—William Wordsworth and Robert Southey.”, in William Tait, editor, Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume VI, number LXVII, Edinburgh: William Tait; London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; Dublin: John Cumming, →OCLC, page 461, column 2:

Eating apricots and apricating himself the while on a garden wall, his hands in his pockets, he [the poet James Thomson] forms a pretty pendant to the Horatian picture.

1855 June, “Sir Nathaniel” [pseudonym; Francis Jacox], “Literary Leaflets. No. XXII.—James Thomson.”, in William Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine, volume CIV, number CCCCXIV, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 165:

The infirm state of my bodily health would be a sufficient apology for not taking up the pen at this time, wholesome as I deem it for the mind to apricate in the shelter of epistolary confidence, were it not that a considerable, I might even say a large, number of individuals in this parish expect from their pastor some publick exprssion of sentiment at this crisis.

1862, Homer Wilbur [pseudonym; James Russell Lowell], “[The Biglow Papers. (Second Series.)] Latest Views of Mr. Biglow.”, in Melibœus-Hipponax. The Biglow Papers, […], London: S. O. Beeton, […], published [1865], →OCLC, page 170:

It would never have occurred to him that in placing the apricot in my palm he was giving me his ass to hold or that, in biting the fruit, I was also biting into that part of his body that must have been fairer than the rest because it never apricated— […]

2007, André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Picador, 2008, →ISBN, page 35:

(intransitive, rare) To bask in the sun.

zonnebaden

to bask in the sun — see also bask, sun, sunbathe

No longer were social parties the old heraldic solemnities enjoyed by red letters in the almanac, in which the chief objects were to discharge some arrear of ceremonious debt, or to ventilate old velvets, or to apricate and refresh old gouty systems and old traditions of feudal ostentation, which both alike suffered and grew smoke-dried under too rigorous a seclusion.

1851 May, Thomas De Quincey, “Lord Carlisle on Pope. From Tait’s Magazine.”, in W. H. Bidwell, editor, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, volume XXIII, number I, New York, N.Y.: Published at 120 Nassau Street, →OCLC, page 74, column 2:

(transitive, also figuratively, rare) To disinfect and freshen by exposing to the sun; to sun.


verditure

en-noun

verditure (usually uncountable, plural verditures)


Bude light

From Bude in Cornwall, the home of its inventor.

(historical) A large light in which a jet of oxygen or air is introduced into the centre of a flame.


selenocentric

a selenocentric coordinate system

a selenocentric orbit

(astronomy) Having the moon at the center.


imblaze

en-verb

imblaze (third-person singular simple present imblazes, present participle imblazing, simple past and past participle imblazed)

imblazes (present singular third-person)
imblazing (participle present)
imblazed (participle past)
imblazed (past)


prasinous

en-adj

prasinous (comparative more prasinous, superlative most prasinous)

more prasinous (comparative)
most prasinous (superlative)

From Latin prasinus, from Ancient Greek πρᾰ́σῐνος (prắsĭnos, “leek-green, light green”).

der

prasinous:


charcloth

/ˈt͡ʃɑɹklɔθ/

A swatch of fabric made from vegetable fibre (such as linen or cotton) that has been converted via pyrolysis into a slow-burning fuel of very low ignition temperature, historically used as tinder.


nightertale

Inherited from Middle English nyghtertale, alteration of Old Norse náttarþel.

inh+

A person (as their books make her) raised up by power divine, only for succour to the French estate, then deeply in distress, in whom, for planting a credit the rather, first the company that towards the Dauphin did conduct her, through all dangerous, as held by the English, where she never was afore, all the way and by nightertale safely did she lead; […]

1867, Charles Knight, editor, The Pictoral Works of Shakspere: Histories — Volume II, George Routledge & Sons, pages 21–22:

All through the nightertale I longed for thee, […]

1926, Arthur Mache, Notes and Queries, Spurr & Swift, page 14:

And since Thomas of Gloucester was Arundel's friend, and only God and His Saints knew which way the redeless King would jump, the future was so dangerful that Edmund of York could neither relish his meat nor sleep sound at nightertale.

1975, Georgette Heyer, My Lord John, Arrow Books, published 2011, →ISBN, page 44:

'Did I offend thee in my japishness, my son? Or did slumber forsake thee a nightertale last?'

2011, Arthur D Bardswell, The Poor Preachers: The Adventures of the First Lollards, WestBow Press, →ISBN, page 288:

(archaic) The period of night; nighttime.


purpureal

en-adj

purpureal (comparative more purpureal, superlative most purpureal)

more purpureal (comparative)
most purpureal (superlative)

/pɜːˈpjʊə.ɹɪ.əl/

From Latin purpureus (“purple, violet; brown, reddish; clothed in purple; (figurative) brilliant, shining; beautiful”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Purpureus is either derived:
* from purpura (“the colour purple; purple-fish (Hexaplex trunculus)”) (from Ancient Greek πορφῠ́ρᾱ (porphŭ́rā, “purple-fish; purple dye obtained from it; purple-dyed cloth; purple stripe or other adornment of a garment”), from πορφύρω (porphúrō, “to redden”)) + -eus (suffix forming adjectives from nouns); or
* from Ancient Greek πορφύρεος (porphúreos, “of a purple colour”), from πορφῠ́ρᾱ (porphŭ́rā) (see above) + -εος (-eos).

der

[G]liding thro' his daughter's honour'd ſhades, / The ſmooth Penéus from his glaſſy flood / Reflects purpureal Tempe's pleaſant ſcene?

1744, [Mark Akenside], “Book the First”, in The Pleasures of Imagination. A Poem. In Three Books, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 16, lines 296–298:

[T]he fair star / That gems the glittering coronet of morn, / Sheds not a light so mild, so powerful, / As that which, bursting from the Fairy's form, / Spread a purpureal halo round the scene, / Yet with an undulating motion, / Swayed to her outline gracefully.

1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto I”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], →OCLC, page 6:

Of all that is most beauteous—imaged there / In happier beauty; more pellucid streams, / An ampler ether, a diviner air, / And fields invested with purpureal gleams; [...]

1815, William Wordsworth, “Laodamia”, in Poems […], volume I, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], →OCLC, page 229:

But not ere him who summoneth / I first have seen, enwound / With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned; [...]

1893, Francis Thompson, “The Hound of Heaven”, in The Works of Francis Thompson, volume I (Poems), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons […], published 1913, →OCLC, page 112:

Above the altar-lace / he mounted a triptych of the Assumption / with coarse, purpureal clouds, a prescient Madonna / drawn from Leonardo's "Our Lady of the Rocks."

1973, Derek Walcott, “[Homage to Gregorias] Chapter 10”, in Another Life, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 63:

violâtre

(literary, poetic) of a purple colour — see also purple


Mars brown

Presumably from the colour of the planet Mars.


actinochemistry

This view, which by a mass of evidence may be shown to be erroneous, is exerting a very prejudicial effect on the progress of actinochemistry.

1872, John William Draper, “Researches in Actino-Chemistry […] ”, in Philosophical Magazine:


violescent

en-adj

violescent (comparative more violescent, superlative most violescent)

more violescent (comparative)
most violescent (superlative)
violascent (alternative)


laurel green

laurel green:

A green-gray color, like that of a leaf of a laurel


laurel green

Of a green-gray color, like that of a leaf of a laurel.


pine green

en-noun

pine green (countable and uncountable, plural pine greens)

pine green:

A dark blue-green color, like that of a pine tree.


pine green

Of a dark blue-green color, like that of a pine tree.


ignigenous

From Latin ignigenus, from ignis (“fire”) + genere, ginere (“to beget, produce”).

Lava is ignigenous.


ochroleucous

en-adj

ochroleucous (comparative more ochroleucous, superlative most ochroleucous)

more ochroleucous (comparative)
most ochroleucous (superlative)

ochroleucous:

Yellowish-white; having a faint tint of dingy yellow


en-proverb

lightning never strikes twice in the same place

salama ei iske kahta kertaa samaan paikkaan

la foudre ne tombe jamais deux fois au même endroit

piorun nigdy nie uderza dwa razy w to samo miejsce

um raio nunca cai duas vezes no mesmo lugar

un rayo no cae dos veces en el mismo lugar


aprication

/æpɹɪˈkeɪʃən/

Aprication, a beaking in the sunne."

1626, H. C. Gent, The English Dictionarie, London: Isaac Iaggard:

Very few persons seem to have a due sense of the luxury and benefit of aprication, or immersion in the sunshine bath, which every fair day will furnish gratuitously to all applicants.

1883, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Pages from an old volume of life, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company:

We would tease him about the countless hours he would spend soaking in suntan lotion as he lay on the same exact spot along the pool. "How long were you in heaven this morning?" my mother would ask. "Two straight hours. But I plan to return early this afternoon for a much longer aprication."

2007, André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Picador, 2008, →ISBN, page 26:

(rare) The act of apricating, or basking in the sun.


firestriker

firestrikers (plural)
fire striker (alternative)

A piece of high-carbon steel used for striking a spark, usually kept in a tinderbox with flint and tinder.

uror

piece of steel used for striking a spark


flammation

Arsenic […]being artificial and sublimed with salt, will not endure flammation

1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

(obsolete) The act of setting on fire; inflammation


porraceous

en-adj

porraceous (comparative more porraceous, superlative most porraceous)

more porraceous (comparative)
most porraceous (superlative)

/pɔːˈɹeɪʃəs/

From Latin porrāceus, from porrum, porrus (“a leek”).

If the lesser Intestines be wounded, he will be troubled with poraceous Vomiting, and what he eats or drinks will pass out of his Wound in less than half an hour[.]

1676, Richard Wiseman, Several Chirurgical Treatises, page 432:

During the night she vomited porraceous matter.

1914, Georges Dieulafoy, A Text-Book of Medicine, page 880:

[B]ut [I] had to say that the "foliage" was "emerald" or indeed (I discovered this in a Victorian book of verse by a gentleman called Bradford) that the "verdure" was "porraceous".

1956, Paul Dehn, For Love and Money, page 79:

My pignoration, see, is this smaragd, of porraceous hue. Bless my tripudiation, stellify my verses.

1986, Les Murray, editor, The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse, page 214:

porraceous:

(originally medicine now rare) Resembling the leek in colour; greenish.


scug

scugs (plural)
skug (alternative)
scoug (alternative)
skoog (alternative)

Scottish and Northern English from Old Norse skuggi, from Proto-Germanic *skuwwô (“shadow, reflection”). Cognate with Icelandic skuggi, Swedish skugga, Danish skygge, Old English sċūa, sċūwa (“a shade”).

der

(Northern England, Scotland) Shade, shadow.

We was jickering along […] under the scug o' the hill.

(Northern England, Scotland) A shelter, a sheltered place (especially on the side of a hill).


scug

en-verb

scug (third-person singular simple present scugs, present participle scugging, simple past and past participle scugged)

scugs (present singular third-person)
scugging (participle present)
scugged (participle past)
scugged (past)
skug (alternative)
scoug (alternative)
skoog (alternative)

(Northern England, Scotland, transitive) To shelter; to protect.

(Northern England, Scotland, intransitive) To hide; to take shelter.


blue jet

blue jets (plural)
blue-jet (alternative)
bluejet (alternative)

Mysterious bluejets can be seen with the naked eye from the ground, but they are rare and difficult to spot.

1999, Patricia Barnes-Svarney, Thomas E. Svarney, Skies of fury: weather weirdness around the world, Simon and Schuster, page 100:

(astronomy, meteorology) An upper atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a rapidly expanding disk-shaped region of luminosity, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, which occurs high above energetic cloud-to-ground lightning of positive or negative polarity.


blue starter

Blue starters were first observed in 1994.

2007, Vladimir A. Rakov, Martin A. Uman, Lightning: Physics and Effects, Cambridge University Press, page 483:

(meteorology) A rapidly expanding disc-shaped region of luminosity, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, seen high above energetic lightning associated with hail-producing regions of thunderstorms, reaching up no higher than about 12 miles altitude.


transient luminous event

en-noun

transient luminous event (plural transient luminous events)

Transient luminous events can be another source of ionization in the upper atmosphere.

2010, Rafael Escribano Torres, Isabel Tanarro Onrubiay, Spectroscopy of the atmospheres, CSIC, page 34:

During World War II (and probably before), high flying pilots were reported to have observed unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP), often now called transient luminous events (TLE’s), particularly in the vicinity of thunderstorms.

2012, Don Lipman, “Red sprites, blue jets, and elves What are these mysterious, elusive phenomena?”, in The Washington Post:

Known as Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), these unusual features were first spotted by accident in 1989.

2018, Mary Halton, “Hunting mystery giant lightning from space”, in BBC News:

(astronomy, meteorology, aviation) Any of a variety of upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with thunderstorms.


sprite halo

sprite halo (plural sprite halos or sprite haloes)

sprite halos (plural)
sprite haloes (plural)

In lhe: early days of LLTV monitoring it was common to observe an apparent elve followed by a sprite, sometimes called a "sprelve." While elves do indeed precede some sprites, the "sprelve" in most cases, was found to represent a "sprite halo."

2006, Martin Füllekrug, Eugene A. Mareev, Michael J. Rycroft, Sprites, elves and intense lightning discharges, page 37:

(astronomy, meteorology) An upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a diffuse disk-shaped glow that precedes a sprite and propagates downward.


sprelve

In the early days of LLTV monitoring it was common to observe an apparent elve followed by a sprite, sometimes called a "sprelve." While elves do indeed precede some sprites, the "sprelve" in most cases, was found to represent a "sprite halo."

(astronomy, meteorology) An upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with thunderstorms, in which an elve is immediately followed by a sprite.


upward lightning

upward lightning (countable and uncountable, plural upward lightnings)

(astronomy, meteorology) An upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, in which the lightning bolt projects straight into the upper atmosphere.


red sprite

Red sprites flash high above thunderstorm clouds.

1999, Patricia Barnes-Svarney, Thomas E. Svarney, Skies of fury: weather weirdness around the world, Simon and Schuster, page 99:

(astronomy, meteorology) An upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with thunderstorms, a large but weak luminous flash that appears directly above an active thunderstorm system and is coincident with a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike.


gigantic jet

Gigantic jets appear to provide an electrical connection between cloud tops and the ionosphere.

2009, Michael C. Kelley, The earth's ionosphere: plasma physics and electrodynamics, Academic Press, page 364:

(astronomy, meteorology) An upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with thunderstorms, a carrot-shaped red sprite that propagates upward from the core of an oceanic thunderstorm.


archil

archil (countable and uncountable, plural archils)


eupyrion

From eu- + Ancient Greek πῦρ (pûr, “fire”) + -ion.

A flint and steel, with matches, or, what is far better, an eupyrion, should always be conveniently placed in the laboratory, and near to it a candle and candlestick

1830, Michael Faraday, Chemical Manipulation:

(archaic, historical) A device historically used for obtaining instantaneous light, such as a lucifer match.


OSETI

(astrobiology) Acronym of optical search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It is SETI using visible light instead of traditional radio waves.


lucule

Diminutive from Latin lux, lucis (“light”).

(astronomy, obsolete) facula (bright spot on the sun)


erythrosin

erythrosin (countable and uncountable, plural erythrosins)

(chemistry) A red substance formed by the oxidation of tyrosin.


isabelline

en-adj

isabelline (comparative more isabelline, superlative most isabelline)

more isabelline (comparative)
most isabelline (superlative)

The isabelline (or Daurian) shrike is a greyish-yellow and hunts from prominent perches, impaling the corpses on thorns as a larder.

As Mr. Tristram has remarked, in regard to the inhabitants of the Sahara, all are protected by their “isabelline or sand-colour.”

1871, Charles Darwin, “Birds—concluded”, in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. […], volume II, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Part II (Sexual Selection), page 224:

Isabelline -us: pale yellow with some red and brown [chronic lemon with a little carmine and roman sepia].

[1906, John Bernhard Smith, Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology:

(chiefly of animals) Coloured a greyish yellow.


Florida flambe

Florida flambes (plural)
Florida flambé (alternative)

Medina was killed, then cooked, becoming the second inmate in seven years to suffer the Florida flambe.

1997 April 5, Leonard Pitts, “Fiery execution shows lie of ‘humane’ death penalty”, in The Free Lance-Star, page A15:

There's a nice new death chamber in Terre Haute, Ind., just waiting for ya. No Florida flambe there. A slight boo-boo occurred not long ago when Florida fired up "Old Sparky" to execute a criminal. The guy's face mask flared up. Most grisly. A Florida district attorney glibly said the moral of the mishap was not to commit crime in Florida if you don't want the same treatment.

1997 June 6, Elizabeth Jarnagin, “Pro-life consistency means opposing death penalty”, in Amarillo Globe-News:

This is why harris should go down in Florida Flambe.

2005 August 19, Cha, “Ms. Harris's "felon purge"”, in democraticunderground.com:

(derogatory) Burning (catching fire) during execution by electric chair.

Capital punishment in Florida
Old Sparky


solferino

en-noun

solferino (countable and uncountable, plural solferinos)

/ˌsoʊlfəˈɹiːnəʊ/

So called from Solferino in Italy, where a battle was fought at about the time of its discovery.

A brilliant purple-red dye derived from aniline


selenographist

One who studies selenography; a selenographer.


chrysaniline

chrysaniline (countable and uncountable, plural chrysanilines)

(organic chemistry) A yellow substance obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of rosaniline, used to dye silk a golden-yellow colour.


anchusin

Borrowed from New Latin Anchusa (“the plant alkanet”) + -in.

(organic chemistry) A resinoid colouring matter obtained from alkanet root.


lumination

lumination (countable and uncountable, plural luminations)

From luminate + -ion, or a Latin *lūminātiōnem (“illumination”), from lūminō (“to brighten, to illuminate; to reveal (throw light on)”), from lūmen (“light”) (probably from lūx (“light”) + -men (suffix forming neuter nouns of the third declension)), from Proto-Indo-European *lewk-s-men (“light”) (from Proto-Italic *louks, from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; light; white”) + *-mn̥ (suffix indicating a noun))) + Latin -tiōnem (“-tion”, suffix forming a noun relating to some action or the result of an action) (from Proto-Italic *-tiō, from Proto-Indo-European *-tis (suffix forming nouns from verbs)).

der

Nor are we to think it strange, if after so great a quantity of luminous vapour had been carried up into the ether, out of the pores of the earth, the cause of its effervescence at length abating, or perhaps the matter consumed, these effluvia should at length subside, and form those two bright luminations which we have described; and, whose edges being turned to us, were capable to emit so much light that we might read by them. I choose to call them luminations, because, though they were but thin, doubtless they spread horizontally over a large tract of the earth's surface.

1815, Edward Polehampton, “Aurora Borealis and Australis”, in The Gallery of Nature and Art; or, A Tour through Creation and Science. … Illustrated with One Hundred Plates, from New Designs, Descriptive of the Wonders of Nature and Art. … In Six Volumes, volume IV, London: Printed by R. Wilks, 89, Chancery-Lane; sold by Cradock and Joy, Paternoster-Row; Rodwell, New Bond-Street; Underwood, Fleet-Street; and all other booksellers, →OCLC, section II (Account of Surprising Lights in the Air, March 6, 1716; with an Attempt to Explain Their Principal Phœnomena. By Edmund [i.e., Edmond] Halley, J.V.D. Savilian Professor of Geometry, Oxon, and Secretary to the Royal Society.), page 412:

The most delicate test for phosphorus is the distillation of the suspected substance, especially flour paste, with a little sulphuric acid and water. […] Where the aqueous vapors from the flask reach the cooling tube, a lumination is constantly observed in the dark, usually a luminous ring. […] If ether, alcohol or turpentine are present, they will prevent the lumination, which commences as soon as they have passed over.

1856 July, E[ilhard] Mitscherlich, “[Contributions to Toxicology. [Translated from Archiv. d. Pharm. and Buchners N. Repertorium.] by John M. Maisch.] Method to Discover Phosphorus”, in William Procter Jr., editor, The American Journal of Pharmacy, volume XXVIII (Third Series, volume IV), Philadelphia, Pa.: Merrihew & Thompson, printers, Lodge Street, north side Pennsylvania Bank, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 323–324:

Who knows how many forgotten souls had rotted away and eventually died within the walls of this dungeon? Would he be one of them? The only light was the scant lumination that flickered upon the floor cast by a torch far down the hall.

2001, Robert R. Hotchkiss, “In the Palace Dungeon”, in Earth of Fire, Sky of Ice: An Epic Fantasy Adventure (The Shaldrodan Saga; book 1), Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 159:

We are confronted with saving our entire Pleistocene legacy, with redeeming creation, beyond big bangs and white dwarfs and any and all apocalypses. We are being offered the only way to understand what a universe is. The real universe, the one that beats in our hearts, that casts its luminations across our dreams …

2008, Richard Grossinger, “Third Cycle”, in The Bardo of Waking Life, Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 264:

It is not atypical for a newly installed LED [light-emitting diode] board to be capable of luminating for 100,000 hours, continuously, in a 24/7 production facility. In the future, these lumination times are expected to increase incrementally.

2008, Jimmy Schaeffler, “What’s Driving Digital Signage?”, in Digital Signage: Software, Networks, Advertising, and Displays: A Primer for Understanding the Business (NAB Executive Technology Briefings), Burlington, Mass., Oxford: Focal Press, →ISBN, page 80:

(rare) Illumination; specifically, artificial illumination.


olivaster

en-adj

olivaster (comparative more olivaster, superlative most olivaster)

more olivaster (comparative)
most olivaster (superlative)

From French olivastre (attested by 1575; compare modern French olivâtre). For more, see olive, -aster.

Of colour, they are rather black than olivaster and that their arms and legs are chained with manilios and armlets of silver, brass, ivory and the like

1634, T[homas] H[erbert], A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC:

(archaic, uncommon) Of the color of the olive; tawny.


multialarm

Fires which have heretofore been one‐alarm skirmishes are now multialarm small wars.

1977 February 14, Joseph E. Galvin, “Under Fire”, in The New York Times:

Two multialarm fires burned out of control for several hours in New York City last night, one racing through seven frame dwellings and leaving more than 100 people homeless in the Morrisania section of the Bronx and another, reportedly set by arsinists^([sic]), destroying a series of stores and residences in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.

1977 July 25, “Fires Burn in Bronx and Brooklyn”, in The New York Times:

(US, firefighting, of a fire) Requiring the work of several firetrucks to contain or extinguish.


barwood

en-noun

barwood (countable and uncountable, plural barwoods)

From bar + wood, since it was imported from Africa in bars.

(uncountable) Red wood of a leguminous African tree, Baphia nitida, used as a dyewood and for ramrods, violin bows and turner's work.


Drummond light

Named after British naval officer and civil engineer Thomas Drummond (1797–1840).


croceous

en-adj

croceous (comparative more croceous, superlative most croceous)

more croceous (comparative)
most croceous (superlative)

From Latin croceus, from crocus (“saffron”). See crocus.

Of a deep reddish yellow, like that of saffron.


yellowred

yellowred (comparative more yellowred, superlative most yellowred)

more yellowred (comparative)
most yellowred (superlative)

Coxa grey, grey haired, femur blackbrown, yellowwhite haired along the distal lateral border, tibia redbrown to blackbrown, yellowred haired at base, then black haired.

Head: Triangular; clypeus enclosed; cheeks surrounding clypeus are nearly straight extending in front of compound eyes; antennae pinkish or of yellowred tile with last article darker; second article longer than third one [...]

1971, Benakeio Phytopathologiko Institouto, Chronika tou Benakeiou Phytopathologikou Institoutou:

“I’ll do it,” said Dolly, and getting up, she carefully passed the spoon over the frothing sugar, and from time to time shook off the clinging jam from the spoon by knocking it on a plate that was covered with yellowred scum and blood-colored syrup.

2003, Leo Tolstoy, Amy Mandelker, Constance Garnett, Anna Karenina:

(uncommon) Alternative form of yellow-red


alhenna

Borrowed from Arabic الحِنَّاء (al-ḥinnāʔ), preserving the Arabic article اَل (al-).

Lawsonia inermis
Lawsonia inermis#Translingual


dishwater blond

dishwater blond (comparative more dishwater blond, superlative most dishwater blond)

more dishwater blond (comparative)
most dishwater blond (superlative)
dishwater blonde (alternative)

She had a pert, dishwater blond hairdo, kind of like a Doris Day cut.

2006, Pierce Scranton, Death on the Learning Curve, Elite Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 129:

Of a dark blond color bordering on light brown.


dishwater blond

en-noun

dishwater blond (plural dishwater blonds)

dishwater blonds (plural)
dishwater blonde (alternative)

dishwater blond:

"Dishwater blond is just as attractive as it sounds. Get highlights."

2006, Christina Dodd, Trouble in High Heels, Signet, published 2006, →ISBN, page 21:

A dark shade of blond, bordering on light brown.

Russ tipped the magazine slightly to reduce the glare from the lamp. The dishwater blond in the picture smiled at him, Russ thought, in just the right way.

2003, David M. Pierce, Elf Child, The Hatworth Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 1:


bluenette

A girl with pale blue hair and a translucent dress wears see-through underwear (she's not a natural bluenette).

2000 November, B. Werde, “The Love”, in CMJ New Music Monthly:

(slang) A person with blue hair, especially a woman.


Carcel lamp

Named after its French inventor, Bernard Guillaume Carcel.

(historical) A mechanical lamp from the 19th century, in which a superabundance of oil is pumped to the wick tube by clockwork.


combustibly

en-adv

combustibly (comparative more combustibly, superlative most combustibly)

more combustibly (comparative)
most combustibly (superlative)

So it's not surprising that Terry McCabe's theatrically assured, combustibly comic staging is superior to Borealis Theatre's revival two months ago.

2003 November 28, Lawrence Bommer, “The Play's the Thing”, in Chicago Reader:

All at once holding his sides, he found a little breath and cried combustibly: "A can-can!"

1913, Owen Johnson, Murder in Any Degree:


almagra

en-noun

almagra (usually uncountable, plural almagras)

Borrowed from Spanish almagra (more commonly almagre), from Arabic الْمُغْرَة (al-muḡra, “red clay or earth”).


Mittler's green

A green pigment made from chromium oxide.


self-immolate

en-verb

self-immolate (third-person singular simple present self-immolates, present participle self-immolating, simple past and past participle self-immolated)

self-immolates (present singular third-person)
self-immolating (participle present)
self-immolated (participle past)
self-immolated (past)

A woman asked, hesitantly: “Is he the one who … self-immolated?”

2019 April 15, J Oliver Conroy, “A lawyer set himself on fire to protest climate change. Did anyone care?”, in The Guardian:

(intransitive) To set oneself on fire, especially as a form of protest.


blue-red

en-adj

blue-red (comparative more blue-red, superlative most blue-red)

more blue-red (comparative)
most blue-red (superlative)

From blue + red. Compare Old English blēorēad (“blue-red, purple”).

cog

blue-red:

This unquiet feeling increases as the hue progresses, and it may be safely assumed, that a carpet of a perfectly pure deep blue-red [translating Blaurot] would be intolerable.

1840, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe's Theory of Colours:

A dye-stuff which dyes wool and silk in acid-bath in fine red-violet tints, dissolves in water with a blue-red color and a yellowish fluorescence, is sparingly soluble in alcohol, insoluble in ether and benzene, […]

1898, The Year-book for Colorists and Dyers, page 85:

Amyl alcohol extracts a blue-red color from material dyed with magenta, but extracts a yellow color from aurin, while from orchil a pink or violet color is obtained.

1908, Samuel Philip Sadtler, A Hand-book of Industrial Organic Chemistry:

(V), C₁₄H₉O₃NBr₂, dark crystals with cantharides luster, blackens above 230°, does not m. 310°, sol. in NaOH with blue-red color and very faint fluorescence.

1925, Chemical Abstracts, volume 19, page 2649:

Standing and moving to under one of the lights by the nav station I could see a dark blue-red mark across the right side of my rib cage. Prodding gently I realised I had just cracked or broken one or more ribs.

2013, Crispin Latymer, Where the Ocean Meets the Sky, page 48:

When hemoglobin is unoxygenated, blood assumes a darker blue-red color. Thus, blood coming from the lungs is well oxygenated and appears red. Blood leaving the tissues has given up its oxygen and appears blue-red.

2014, Barbara L. Herlihy, The Human Body in Health and Illness, page 289:

She ran her fingers down his leg, tugging up his jeans to reveal a blue-red bruise already starting to swell.

Of a colour between blue and red; purple or crimson.

a blue-red cock (rooster)

Consisting of the colours blue and red individually.


blue-red

en-noun

blue-red (countable and uncountable, plural blue-reds)

Let us suppose a red represented by the equivalent number, five, with one part of blue added to it, thus causing it to be a blue-red or crimson.

1981, The Technical Educator, an Encyclopædia:

A blue-red monochromatic color plan includes any hues created when blue-red is combined with white, black, and/or gray.

2014, Joen Wolfrom, Color Play, page 104:

A colour between blue and red; purple or crimson.


yellow-red

en-adj

yellow-red (comparative more yellow-red, superlative most yellow-red)

more yellow-red (comparative)
most yellow-red (superlative)
yellowred (alternative)

From Middle English *yelwered, *ȝeoluread, from Old English ġeolurēad (“reddish yellow, orange”), equivalent to yellow + red.

inh

The spar buoy is a red and white horizontally striped pole with a yellow top and has a yellow-red ball at the top and a yellow triangular flag beneath the ball.

1953, Sailing Directions for Northern U.S.S.R., page 20:

After a few days the silver appeared to become more colloidal and the sections were stained a yellow-red color.

1953, International Review of Cytology, volume 2, page 86:

I'd been told many times that my yellow-red hair and peach skin were beautiful, that their contrast with my dark eyes was compelling.

2008, Traci L. Slatton, Immortal, page 6:

Her yellow-red eyes reflected the torches on either side of her throne. A black cape with a crimson lining finished the outfit, connecting to two red stones on her fingers. She could drop any mortal man dead just by her looks.

2010, Alexandra Livingston, Defy the Gods, page 8:

yellow-red:

Of a colour between yellow and red; orange.

Consisting of yellow and red colours individually.


yellow-red

yellow-reds (plural)
yellowred (alternative)

Obviously one will be red, but will the other hue be a yellow-red (orange) or a red-purple?

1930, Benson H. Paul, C. A. Plaskett, Charles Nicholas Ainslie, A Method for Determining the Color of Agricultural Products:

The cultural meanings associated with yellow and yellow-red (orange) are varied.

2017, Jim Long, The New Munsell Student Color Set, page 33:


Argand lamp

Argand lamps (plural)
argand lamp (alternative)

Named after inventor Ami Argand of Geneva.

Never was a more lovely thought than that of the astral lamp. I mean, of course, the astral lamp proper, and do not wish to be misunderstood — the lamp of Argand with its original plain ground-glass shade, and its tempered and uniform moonlight rays.

1840, Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Furniture:

It is probable that Loutherbourg used Argand lamps to achieve his startling effects of meteorology in the Eidophusikon in the mid 1780s.

2007, Christopher Baugh, edited by Moody & O'Quinn, The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre 1730-1830, page 52:

(now historical) A type of oil lamp with a circular hollow wick and glass chimney which allow a current of air both inside and outside of the flame.

quinqué

a lamp with a circular hollow wick and glass chimney


heliotheism

Sun-worship (solarism, or heliotheism) seems to the modern scientist to be the best of all forms of theism, and the one which may be most easily reconciled with modern monism.

1905, Ernst Haeckel, translated by Joseph McCabe, The Riddle of the Universe: At the Close of the Nineteenth Century, Harper & Brothers Publishers, page 280:

(theology) Worship of the Sun; belief that the Sun is a god.


elamping

the cheerfull Sunne, elamping wide, is described
Glads all the world with his uprising raye

1610, Giles Fletcher, Christ's Victorie and Triumph, in Heaven, in Earth, over and after Death:


scarefire

scarefires (plural)
skarefire (alternative)

From scare + fire. In some senses, alteration of scathefire.

Scarefire of Purgatory

1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC:

(obsolete) A house-burning; conflagration; scathefire.


philomot

One of them was blue, another yellow, and another philomot

1712 January 14 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “THURSDAY, January 3, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 265; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:


carthamin

Carthamus tinctorius
Carthamus tinctorius#Translingual

(organic chemistry) A red pigment obtained from the safflower, Carthamus tinctorius.


Fresnel lantern

en-noun

Fresnel lantern (plural Fresnel lanterns)

A lantern used in theatre, which employs a Fresnel lens to wash light over an area of the stage.


forsweal

en-verb

forsweal (third-person singular simple present forsweals, present participle forswealing, simple past and past participle forswealed)

forsweals (present singular third-person)
forswealing (participle present)
forswealed (participle past)
forswealed (past)

From Middle English forswelen, forswælen, from Old English forswǣlan (“to burn, burn up, inflame, consume”), equivalent to for- + sweal.


alizari

en-noun

alizari (countable and uncountable, plural alizaris)

From French alizari (“madder root (commercial name)”), from Greek αλιζάρι (alizári, “madder”), from Ottoman Turkish آلاجهری (ala cehri).

bor

the able Holland merchants dispersed it in all the markets of Europe , after they had mixed it with the alizaris of Levant

1849, United States. Dept. of Agriculture, Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture:

(archaic) The madder of the Levant; wild madder (Rubia peregrina).


spadiceous

en-adj

spadiceous (comparative more spadiceous, superlative most spadiceous)

more spadiceous (comparative)
most spadiceous (superlative)

From Latin spadix, spadicis (“a date-brown or nut-brown color”). See spadix.

Of those five [horns] which Scaliger beheld, though one spadiceous, or of a light red, and two inclining to red, yet was there not any of this complexion among them.

1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

Of a bright clear brown or chestnut colour.


fordim

en-verb

fordim (third-person singular simple present fordims, present participle fordimming, simple past and past participle fordimmed)

fordims (present singular third-person)
fordimming (participle present)
fordimmed (participle past)
fordimmed (past)

From Middle English fordimmen, from Old English fordimmian (“to obscure, darken”), equivalent to for- + dim.

inh

(transitive, obsolete) To dim; darken; obscure.


forburn

en-verb

forburn (third-person singular simple present forburns, present participle forburning, simple past and past participle forburned or forburnt)

forburns (present singular third-person)
forburning (participle present)
forburned (participle past)
forburned (past)
forburnt (participle past)
forburnt (past)

From Middle English forburnen, forbrinnen, from Old English forbirnan (intransitive) and forbærnan (transitive), equivalent to for- + burn. Cognate with Saterland Frisian ferbaadenje, ferbaanje (“to burn up”), West Frisian ferbarne (“to burn up”), German Low German verbrannen (“to burn up”), German verbrennen (“to burn up, incinerate”).

cog

(intransitive, obsolete) To burn; to be consumed by fire.


colcothar

en-noun

colcothar (countable and uncountable, plural colcothars)

(organic chemistry, obsolete) Polishing rouge; a reddish-brown oxide of iron, used in polishing glass, and also as a pigment.


ubac

Borrowed from Occitan ubac, from Latin opācus. Doublet of opaque.

The distribution of barley is generally on the adret slope, the ubac seeming to be disregarded. A sunny slope is the most important natural factor in the cultivation of barley and wheat. Very rarely they are cultivated in ubac fields, but close investigation showed them to be of secondary adret nature. In this case seeds are sown a month earlier and mown ten days later than on the adret slope.

1942, Japanese Journal of Geology and Geography: Transactions, Titles and Abstracts, Tokyo: Nihon Gakujutsu Kaigi [Science Council of Japan], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34:

Viticulure in an alpine (Savoie) or sub-alpine environment (like the Jura) is a precarious activity […] Exposure, by contrast, exaggerates or modifies the quantity of the altitudinal elements in terms of ubac (shady) versus adret (sunny) positions, wet and dry positions, or windy and protected positions, respectively. The advantages of adret slopes, which are usually drier and more protected, are evident and of paramount importance. Adret aspects receive much higher levels of direct sunlight, which produces higher soil and plant temperatures.

1987, John J. Baxevanis, “The Wines of Savoie”, in The Wines of Champagne, Burgundy, Eastern and Southern France, Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, pages 70–71:

(geography) The shady side of a mountain; in the northern hemisphere, especially a north-facing slope.

obaga

a shady slope i.e. facing away from the sun


absinthe green

A moderate yellow green.
absinthe green:


absinthe yellow

absinthe yellow:


dichlorophenolindophenol

(organic chemistry) A blue chemical compound used as a redox dye.


solarism

solarism (usually uncountable, plural solarisms)


street lamp

street lamps (plural)
street-lamp (alternative)

‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:


Eddington luminosity

Eddington luminosity (plural Eddington luminosities)

Named after British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington

named-after

hydrostatic equilibrium
hydrostatic equilibrium

(physics) The maximum luminosity of a source where the continuum radiation force outwards balances the gravitational force inwards in hydrostatic equilibrium.


khaki green

en-noun

khaki green (countable and uncountable, plural khaki greens)

Rae wore khaki-green. Khaki-green and khaki-brown were his favourite colours, his image.

2001, *Leila Aboulela, The Translator, →ISBN, page 61:

khaki green:

A colour between khaki and green; light olive drab.


light day

(astronomy, physics) A unit of length equal to the distance light travels in one day; about 170 astronomical units


chrysoidine

chrysoidine (countable and uncountable, plural chrysoidines)

Ancient Greek χρυσός (khrusós, “gold”) + -oid + -ine.

A yellow-orange crystalline dye, C₆H₅N₂.C₆H₃(NH₂)₂.


photochlorination

photochlorination (countable and uncountable, plural photochlorinations)


gold ochre

gold ochre (countable and uncountable, plural gold ochres)

gold ochres (plural)
gold ocher (alternative)

/ɡəʊld ˈəʊkə(ɹ)/

gold ochre:

A dark yellowish color, a yellowish shade of ochre or olive.


Saxon green

A green colour produced by dyeing with yellow upon a ground of Saxon blue.


Tilley lamp

A kind of kerosene-powered lamp of the nineteenth century.


biphotochromic

(physical chemistry) Having two photochromic centres


cudbear

cudbear (countable and uncountable, plural cudbears)

cudbears (plural)
cudbeard (alternative)

Corrupted from the name of Dr. Cuthbert Gordon, a Scotsman, who patented the process of manufacture.

ORCHELLA WEEDS. The cylindrical and flat species of Roccella used in the manufacture of Orchil or Archil, and Cudbear, are so called by the makers.

1878, Andrew Ure, Robert Hunt, Frederick William Rudler, Ure̓'s Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines: Containing a Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice, volume 3:

Lecanora tartarea
Lecanora tartarea#Translingual

A violet-red powder, difficult to moisten with water, prepared from certain lichens, especially Ochrolechia tartarea (syn. Lecanora tartarea), and used for making violet or purple dye.


light fixture

A complete lighting unit, composed of a housing attached to a wall or ceiling, and a mount for a light source.


troffer

Each fluorescent troffer in the room contained three lamps and two ballasts.

Flexibility for troffer systems may be planned in the original layout by coordinating the over-all ceiling pattern with the modular size of troffer.

1956, National Research Council, Design for environment: floor, ceilings, and service systems in multi-story buildings, page 36:

A rectangular, trough-shaped light fixture, typically for mounting in or on a ceiling to light the area below, and usually containing two or three fluorescent bulbs.


blondism

Blondism artificially produced in Micronesia and Melanesia as in Polynesia indicates a blond element in the last conquering immigration.

1927, John Macmillan Brown, Peoples & problems of the Pacific, volume 2, page 276:

In the beard latent blondism is likely to come out.

1931, Carleton Stevens Coon, Tribes of the Rif, page 348:

(anthropology) The presence of blond hair and relatively pale skin and eyes in a member of a usually darker race.


Phlegethon

/ˈflɛd͡ʒɪθɒn/

/ˈflɛd͡ʒɪθɑn/

From Latin Phlegethōn, from Ancient Greek Φλεγέθων (Phlegéthōn).

Firebrand of hell first tynd in Phlegeton, / By thousand furies, and from thence out throwen / Into this world, to worke confusion, / And set it all on fire by force vnknowen / Is wicked discord [...].

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Consumed by the tongues ov fire / burning like Phlegethon / holy gardens reduced to ash

(Greek mythology) A river of fire in Hades.


tropaeolin

tropaeolin (countable and uncountable, plural tropaeolins)

tropaeolins (plural)
tropeolin (alternative)
tropæolin (alternative)

Any of several orange dyes of very complex composition: tropaeolin O (acid orange 6, chrysoine resorcinol), tropaeolin OO (acid orange 5), or tropaeolin OOO (acid orange 7).


battleship gray

battleship gray (countable and uncountable, plural battleship grays)


scathefire

scathefires (plural)
scathe-fire (alternative)
scathe fire (alternative)

From scathe + fire. Compare German Schadenfeuer (“fire damage”). See also scarefire.

A title so clear, as if it were “written with a beam of the sliny;” which no true Englishman in his right wits did ever yet oppose, but one or two foreign pensioners, maintained on purpose abroad to kindle scathfires at home, who gained nothing by the question but to render themselves ridiculous.

1845, John Bramhall, The Works of the Most Reverend Father in God, John Bramhall:

Beneath their ruines: and these horrid sights / Lighted by scathe-fires, they that haue beheld […]

1874 (original 1611), Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood

Richard II, in 1385, and Henry VIII, in 1545, each wrecked it, and after this last scathe-fire it was rebuilt no more.

1901, Albert Le Roy Bartlett, A Golden Way:

You will give them my order to proceed to the scathefire track, with rangers you will find as guides, and parallel the Pargunese, ... The other will parallel the scathefire track until even with the Pargunese and stay even with them as they move.

2012, Elizabeth Moon, Echoes of Betrayal:

Any escaping villagers would be killed. She had heard of scathefires but fortunately her village had not been targeted.

How much more in extremities of more importance, as the quenching of a scathe fire, or defending of a city, or country, by repelling the invading or beleaguering enemy?

2014, Henry Burton, C. Matthew McMahon, Therese B. McMahon, The Law and the Gospel Reconciled:

(obsolete) Destructive flames; a conflagration.


leekish

en-adj

leekish (comparative more leekish, superlative most leekish)

more leekish (comparative)
most leekish (superlative)

Occasionally a church gleams white, its spire thin on a leekish onion of dark grey; and then a small town spreads itself as the trees fall away — [...]

1958, William Sansom, The icicle and the sun:

In describing garlic, Coghan contradicts other writers, for example Newton, who claims that it is a "grosse pothearb" that creates "naughty and corrupte iuyce," which in turn engenders a putrefying "leekish choler" in the body.

2009, Bianca Ryan-Lopez, Corruption and Infected Sin:

Resembling a leek, especially in colour.


isabella

Unknown. Anecdotally linked to Isabella I of Castile (1451–1504) or Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566–1633).
See discussion at Isabelline (colour).

If it be exposed to heat as soon as it is moderately warm, its dark olive colour changes almost suddenly to an Isabella colour, it becomes cloudy, and an abundant precipitate falls[…]

1864, Sir William Crookes, Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science, volume 10, page 301:

A pale grey-yellow, fawn, cream-brown or parchment colour.

Isabella Clara Eugenia
Isabella I of Castile
Isabelline (colour)


aniline yellow

A yellow azo dye, 4-phenyldiazenylaniline


French grey

The door was French grey outside with raised metal lettering, as clean and sharp as a new knife.

1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 130:

French grey:


Saunders blue

Corrupted from French cendres bleues, blue ashes.

A pigment prepared from calcined lapis lazuli; ultramarine.


illuminating gas

Any of several types of flammable gas produced and distributed commercially, especially when used for gaslight; coal gas, water gas, and natural gas have all been sold as illuminating gas or town gas.


claybank

I took Señorita Anabela for a walk in the lemon grove while Fergus, disfiguring himself with an ugly frown, was waltzing with the claybank girl.

1909 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “‘Next to Reading Matter’”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 82:


set alight

en-verb

set alight (third-person singular simple present sets alight, present participle setting alight, simple past and past participle set alight)

sets alight (present singular third-person)
setting alight (participle present)
set alight (participle past)
set alight (past)


antisun

en-noun

antisun (countable and uncountable, plural antisuns)


swamp gas

* (hydrogen sulfide): So called because it is often emitted from wetlands such as swamps as a result of anaerobic bacteria, and is responsible for their foul “rotten egg” odor.
* (ufology): An explanation given by then-skeptic J. Allen Hynek for an alleged UFO sighting in Michigan near Lake Huron in 1966.

Swamp gas occasionally catches fire. Sometimes lightning sets off a patch of swamp gas.


moonbase

moonbases (plural)
moon base (alternative)

Matahka entered the intersection of the moonbase's basic "T" design. With the gym behind him, he glanced to his right down the first hallway that led to the main entrance. The old dorm pods were now used as offices.

2010, Brian Willshire, Moonbase Eden, page 14:

(originally science fiction) A base or outpost located on a moon.


blike

en-verb

blike (third-person singular simple present blikes, present participle bliking, simple past bliked or bloke, past participle bliked or blicken)

blikes (present singular third-person)
bliking (participle present)
bliked (past)
bloke (past)
bliked (participle past)
blicken (participle past)

From Middle English bliken, from Old English blīcan (“to shine, glitter, dazzle, sparkle, twinkle”), from Proto-Germanic *blīkaną (“to gleam, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine”). Compare blick.

inh

(intransitive, obsolete) To shine; gleam.


Kagutsuchi

Borrowed from Japanese 迦具土 (かぐつち, Kagutsuchi), originally a compound of かぐ (kagu, obsolete verb root meaning “to shine, to sparkle”) + つ (tsu, Old Japanese possessive particle) + ち (chi, “power, life force”).

(Japanese mythology, Shinto) The Japanese god of fire, son of Izanagi and Izanami and brother of Amaterasu, Susanoo, Tsukuyomi and Ōyamatsumi; he burned his mother to death while being born.


NPSH

(fluid mechanics) Initialism of net positive suction head.


erminois

(heraldry) In blazon, ermine with a field or instead of argent (gold with black spots).

guldhermelin

of gold colour with black spots on a coat of arms


argaman

/ˈɑː(ɹ)ɡəmən/

Borrowed from Hebrew אַרְגָּמָן (argaman, “purple, crimson”), from Akkadian 𒅈𒂵𒌋𒌋𒉡 (argamannu, “red-purple”).

der

This purple light of Venus-Sophia-Lucifer was symbolized with purple colour. And this is where argaman purple was needed exclusively: as most crucial part of anointment oil mixture.

2012, Mika Virpiranta, Sun Cults versus Thunder Cults:

(historical) A particular purple dye or color.


firenado

en-noun

firenado (plural firenados or firenadoes)

A fire whirl (a whirling column of fire found in large fiery areas such as wildfires, similar in appearance to a tornado made out of fire).


floor lamp

A lamp supported by a tall vertical pole in order that light comes from above those seated in the vicinity.


anerithmon gelasma

From Ancient Greek ἀνήριθμον γέλασμα (anḗrithmon gélasma), from Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound (90).

lbor

ἀνήριθμον γέλασμα

With a stomach half full and a cerebrum hollow
As the tortoise-shell ere it was strung for Apollo,
Under contract to raise anerithmon gelasma
With rhymes so hard hunted they gasp with the asthma,

...give us the placid grinning kings, twanging their jolly bows over the rident horses, wounding those good-humored enemies, who tumble gayly off the towers, or drown, smiling, in the dimpling waters, amidst the anerithmon gelasma of the fish.

1855, William Makepeace Thackeray, Quarterly Review:

On one side lies the Indian Ocean, illimitable towrds the east, dimpled with its "anerithmon gelasama," and broken westward by a thin line of foam, creaming upon the whitest and finest of sand, the detritus of coralline and madrepore.

1859, Richard F. Burton, The Lake Regions of Central Africa, →ISBN:

(poetic) Uncountable laughter, said of ocean waves sparkling in sunlight.


Kajin

Borrowed from Japanese 火神 (かじん, Kajin, literally “fire god”).

bor

(Japanese mythology, Shinto) Kagutsuchi, the Japanese god of fire.


countershading

en-noun

countershading (usually uncountable, plural countershadings)

A pattern of animal colouration, existing as a form of camouflage, characterised by darker pigmentation of the upper side and lighter of the underside.


chemical engine

chemical engine (plural chemical engines)

(historical, 19th century, firefighting) A large cart-mounted fire extinguisher using caustic chemical-extinguishing chemicals.


fire bucket

fire buckets (plural)
fire-bucket (alternative)
firebucket (alternative)

Now he rushed to the platform edge carrying a full fire bucket, in a forlorn attempt to douse the flames as the now brightly burning wagon rolled past.

2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:

(firefighting) A bucket holding water or sand, etc., used to extinguish fires.


fire grenade

(obsolete, 19th century, firefighting) A glass bulb filled with caustic and often carcinogenic liquid chemicals that, when thrown and broken in a fire, smother the fire by removing oxygen.

消火弾

glass bulb filled with fire-extinguishing liquid


fire cabinet

(firefighting) a cabinet filled with firefighting equipment

(firefighting) a wall installation where a firehose and tap is located


escape fire

A fuel-free safe spot, consisting of burning grass as a method of defense against a forest fire.


castaneous

en-adj

castaneous (comparative more castaneous, superlative most castaneous)

more castaneous (comparative)
most castaneous (superlative)

From the Latin castanea (“a chestnut, a chestnut tree”) + -ous (“full, full of”).

uder

Elytra piceous, gradually shaded into a castaneous margin, irregularly and minutely punctured, covered with ochraceous pubescence.

Having the colour of a chestnut; chestnut-coloured.


invisible green

(archaic, dyes) A very dark shade of green that is almost black.


methyl violet

(chemistry) An artificial dye consisting of certain methyl halogen derivatives of rosaniline.


lunar mansion

(astronomy, astrology) a segment of the ecliptic (often called a station or house) through which the moon moves in its orbit around the earth, often used by ancient cultures as part of their calendar system.

اختر

a segment of the eliptic through which the moon moves


Selenite

From Selene (“the Moon”) + -ite. From Ancient Greek Σελήνη (Selḗnē, “goddess of the Moon”).

My first impression was of some clumsy quadruped with lowered head. Then I perceived it was the slender pinched body and short and extremely attenuated bandy legs of a Selenite, with his head depressed between his shoulders.

1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Selenite’s Face”, in The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC, page 136:

(science fiction) Synonym of Lunarian (“inhabitant of the Moon”).


firie

‘I escaped when the house next door caught fire,’ she continued. ‘[…] The firies got me to a refuge on the other side of the harbour….’

2018, Melissa Lucashenko, Too Much Lip, University of Queensland Press, published 2023, page 238:


firie

en-adj

firie (comparative more firie, superlative most firie)

more firie (comparative)
most firie (superlative)


fountain lamp

A familiar application is the fountain lamp that has several hundred fibers spraying out of the top.

1989, Ron Whittaker, Video Field Production, page 349:

A lamp that consists of a large number of fiber optic tubes that mimic the spray of water from a fountain.


minimoon

minimoons (plural)
mini-moon (alternative)

The trouble is, the difference in size between Supermoon and Minimoon, though apparent when placed side-by-side, is only 14 percent, too small to be seen with the naked eye.

2014 January 15, Geoff Gaherty, “Smallest full moon of 2014 rises tonight”, in NBC News, archived from the original on 2022-12-21:

At its closest point, perigee, the moon will obviously appear largest. Such a "maximoon" has an apparent diameter about 13% larger than a "minimoon" at its most distant point, apogee.

2018 January 29, Tim O'Brien, “'Super blue blood moon' to grace the sky – here's what we could learn from it”, in The Conversation, archived from the original on 2022-08-13:

For those interested in a longer-term project, Professor Horner said taking a photo of the supermoon and comparing it to the 'minimoon' in December can be an interesting experiment to compare the size.

2022 August 9, Rosie Bensley, “A supermoon will rise on Thursday: Here's a photographer's tips to get the best snap”, in The Canberra Times:

(astronomy, uncommon) Synonym of micromoon (“a full moon which appears unusually small due to coinciding with the Moon's apogee”)


moon rocket

(finance) A company whose stock price rises dramatically following an initial public offering


rose bengal

4,5,6,7-tetrachloro-2',4',5',7'-tetraiodofluorescein, a stain whose sodium salt is commonly used in eyedrops to stain damaged cells and thereby identify damage.


cookfire

“Next evening when he was picking up buffalo chips to make a cookfire, that ram got him.

1978 December 16, John Fischer, “Henry Quiller's Sheep”, in The New York Times:

"Well, we do need to keep some of it on hand, donchaknow. For fueling the cookfires and all that rot."

2005, Harry Turtledove, Alternate Generals III, unnumbered page:


counterfire

en-noun

counterfire (countable and uncountable, plural counterfires)

(firefighting, countable) A smaller fire lit at some distance from a wildfire, in order to develop a firebreak.


counterfire

en-verb

counterfire (third-person singular simple present counterfires, present participle counterfiring, simple past and past participle counterfired)

counterfires (present singular third-person)
counterfiring (participle present)
counterfired (participle past)
counterfired (past)

(firefighting, intransitive) To light a smaller fire at some distance from a wildfire, in order to develop a firebreak.


nightlamp

Dr. M'Alpin and he sat up until the extinction of the lights in the lower rooms round the square, and the glimmering of the nightlamps in the upper chambers, warned them that the world had retired to rest[…]

1842, Mrs. Monkland, The Nabob at Home; Or, The Return to England, page 7:


flashlamp

A kind of lamp that uses an electric current to start powder burning and produce a brief sudden burst of bright light. It was formerly used in flash photography.


white-haired

From Middle English white-heered, white-harid, white-herede, whyte-harede, white hared, equivalent to white + haired. Compare Old Norse hvít-hárr and hvít-hærðr (“white-haired”).

Having white hair, especially from old age.


Yablochkov candle

en-noun

Yablochkov candle (plural Yablochkov candles)

Named after its inventor, Pavel Yablochkov.

electrical engineering
electrical engineering

(electrical engineering) A type of electric carbon arc lamp.


light ball

(military, historical) A ball of combustible materials, used to provide light, and sometimes made so as to fired from a cannon or mortar, or to be carried up by a rocket.


mummy brown

mummy brown (usually uncountable, plural mummy browns)

mummy brown:

I then placed it [a wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus)] in an open window on a whitish bottom, and the next day it was light brown. At 2 p.m., August 24th, I put it on a jet-black shelf, with black surroundings. Forty-five minutes later it was very dark, nearly mummy brown[…], but darker.

1893 August, Clarence M. Weed, “The Color Changes of Frogs”, in The Popular Science Monthly, volume XLIII, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, page 492:

Mummy Browns, from the crushings of Egyptian corpses, for the mortally ill and melancholy.

2001, M[ichelle] R. Lovric, “The Language of Colour”, in Carnevale, London: Virago, →ISBN; republished London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, →ISBN, part 1:

Mummy brown was a common shade in artists’ colors until 1925, but it cannot be bought from any paint shop today. In 1964 Time magazine reported [“Techniques: The Passing of Mummy Brown”, Time, 2 October 1964] that London colormaker C. Roberson, which for a while had been the only distributor, had run out a few years before. “We might have a few odd limbs lying around somewhere,” managing director Geoffrey Roberson-Park told Time, “but not enough to make any more paint.”

2014, Victoria Finlay, “Mummy Brown: Funeral for Pharaohs”, in The Brilliant History of Color in Art, Los Angeles, Calif.: J. Paul Getty Museum, →ISBN, part 2 (Rocks, Minerals, Twigs, and Bugs), page 82, column 2:

The colour of this pigment, a variable brown intermediate between raw umber and burnt umber.


French purple

French purple (usually uncountable, plural French purples)

A dyestuff obtained from certain lichen known as orchella weeds, used for colouring woollen and silken fabrics, without the aid of mordants.


green fire

A pyrotechnic composition which burns with a green flame, consisting of sulfur and potassium chlorate, with some salt of barium (usually the nitrate).


Spanish white

Spanish white (countable and uncountable, plural Spanish whites)


chain lightning

Lightning in angular, zigzag, or forked flashes.


heat lightning

So called because it is common on hot summer nights and is sometimes popularly thought to be caused by heat rather storms.

The typical range at which thunder can be heard is around 24 km [...] Often, people mistakenly call lightning whose thunder is too far away to be heard "heat lightning," suggesting that the lightning somehow owes its existence merely to the heat of the day and not to a thunderstorm. Nonsense. "Heat lightning" is simply distant lightning whose thunder cannot be heard.

2001, Lee M. Grenci, Jon M. Nese, A World of Weather: Fundamentals of Meteorology: a Text/ Laboratory Manual, Kendall Hunt, →ISBN, page 205:

Lightning and/or thunder which the observer attributes to heat rather than a storm (e.g. because the storm/rain is too distant to be seen, or because there is no rain, as with dry lighting).

(in particular) Visible lightning that occurs too far away for the resulting thunder to be audible by the observer.

THE RAIN FINALLY CAME FROM THE DARK GREY SKIES, SOFT AND TEMPTING AT FIRST, WITH THE SOUND OF HEAT LIGHTNING HOVERING OVER THE SKYSCRAPERS! [image is of a city being rained on, no lightning visible]

2019 September 3, William Dubay, Don McGregor, Bud Lewis, Eerie Archives Volume 27, Dark Horse Books, →ISBN, page 229:

Our windows were open, and inside the wind and rumble of heat lightning, I could hear Albert's horses nickering in the darkness.

2008 July 8, James Lee Burke, Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 307:

(less commonly) Thunder that is heard without lightning being seen by the observer; heat thunder.

Joel Brinkley, a schoolteacher, who was a child in the 1950s, recalled a similar feeling during this era: "It seems surreal now. Every summer, when I heard heat lightning over the city and the sky would light up, I was convinced it was all over. My whole childhood was built on the notion that the Soviets were the real threat."

2015 February 9, Hajimu Masuda, Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 86:

The beginning of a watery diarrheal event is said to be marked by a great deal of noise, characterized as […] rumbling (tzilelet 'rumbling sound of heat lightning in the rainy season'), […]

2015 March 8, Elois Ann Berlin, Brent Berlin, Medical Ethnobiology of the Highland Maya of Chiapas, Mexico: The Gastrointestinal Diseases, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 98:


lightning arrester

lightning arrester (plural lightning arresters)

A device used on electrical and telecommunications systems to protect the insulation and conductors from the damaging effects of lightning. Typically, it has a high-voltage terminal and a ground terminal. When a surge travels along the power line to the arrester, the current from the surge is diverted through the arrester, in most cases to earth.


lightning discharger

lightning discharger (plural lightning dischargers)


dry light

dry light (usually uncountable, plural dry lights)


baby pink

baby pink (countable and uncountable, plural baby pinks)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-baby pink.wav

baby pink:


strawberry moon

strawberry moon (plural strawberry moons)

A calque of Ojibwe ode'imini-giizis (“strawberry moon”), because June is strawberry season.

uder

The full moon in June closest to the summer solstice.


daywalker

(fantasy) One who can go out in the sunlight, distinguished from vampires etc. who cannot.


mountain green

Synonym of Paris green (“pigment from copper(II) acetate and arsenic trioxide”).


fire main

Cars were first reported loose in hold 3 at 0544, at the same time the captain said it was unsafe to enter hold 3 due to "gear adrift" and "a lot of water." The bilge pumps were already running. If cars were loose by that time, one or more of them could have hit the unprotected inlet piping section of the emergency fire pump, rupturing the piping or damaging the skin valve so that it could not stop seawater from entering the hold. At 0714, the VDR recorded the chief mate reporting that the chief engineer had said that something hit the fire main and "got it ruptured, hard." (The entire fire system, including the emergency fire pump and piping, was known as the fire main.)

2017 December 12, National Transportation Safety Board, “2.4.2 Flooding”, in Marine Accident Report: Sinking of US Cargo Vessel SS El Faro, Atlantic Ocean, Northeast of Acklins and Crooked Island, Bahamas, October 1, 2015, archived from the original on 2022-05-15, page 190:

A pipe conveying water to extinguish a fire.


jungle green

jungle green:

Keir, in jungle green, sneered up at Nabby Adams[.]

1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 22:

A dark bluish-green colour, like the vegetation in a tropical jungle.


jungle green

Of a dark bluish-green color, like the plants in a jungle


harvest gold

en-noun

harvest gold (countable and uncountable, plural harvest golds)

harvest gold:


desert sand

desert sand:

A very light and very weakly saturated reddish yellow (orange or brown) colour that resembles the color of sand in a desert


backstep

en-verb

backstep (third-person singular simple present backsteps, present participle backstepping, simple past and past participle backstepped)

backsteps (present singular third-person)
backstepping (participle present)
backstepped (participle past)
backstepped (past)

Le Vau is responsible for the jutting central core, while the wings that backstep so elegantly were designed Hardouin-Mansart.

2001, Giovanna Magi, All Paris, →ISBN, page 122:

To be arranged in steps going backwards.


cerulein

en-noun

cerulein (usually uncountable, plural ceruleins)

ceruleins (plural)
caerulein (alternative)

A fast dyestuff with chemical formula C₂₀H₈O₆, made by heating gallein with strong sulfuric acid. It dyes mordanted fabrics green.


fire beater

A simple tool for fighting wildfires, consisting of a piece of rubber at the end of a pole.


blunket

en-adj

blunket (comparative more blunket, superlative most blunket)

more blunket (comparative)
most blunket (superlative)

From Middle English plunket (noun), from plunket (“of a blue or greyish colour”, adj), perhaps the past participle of *plunken (“to cover with lead or lead-colouring”), from Old French plonquier, plonchier (“to cover with lead”), in imitation of Old French plunkié, plonquié (“lead-coloured", also "grey cloth”); ultimately from Latin plumbum (“lead”). The adjective is attested earlier than the noun, yet it remains unclear whether the fabric (which often retained the spelling plunket) gave its name to the color or the other way around. The word is similar to blanket (“cloth”), inviting speculation that it derives (like that word) from Old French blanchet, blanquet (“whitish”), but the most common form even as late as Early Modern English was blunket, and some early works seem to identify it as dark red or violet, which makes that theory phonologically and semantically problematic.


urucum

Martius found most dressed in bits of clothing, their hair wildly tangled and their faces dyed red with urucum.

2006, William Bryant, The Birds of Paradise: Alfred Russel Wallace: a Life, page 67:

They paint them, or at least parts of them, with urucum (reddish) plant dye or even their own blood if there are no urucum plants nearby.

2012, Daniel Everett, Language: The Cultural Tool, Profile, published 2013, page 122:

Bixin results from lycopene oxidation and it is the main carotenoid found in the seed coat of urucum fruits (Bixa orellana L.), which is cultivated in tropical countries of South and Central America, Africa and Asia.

2013, Uchoa et al., ‘Antioxidant Properties of Singlet Oxygen Suppressors’, in Natural Antioxidants and Biocides from Wild Medicinal Plants, p. 78


lightning fast

(idiomatic) Extremely fast, fast as lightning.


sunstead

sunsteads (plural)
sun-stead (alternative)
sunnestead (alternative)
sunsted (alternative)

From sun + stead (“place, point, spot, position”), a calque of Latin sōlstitium. Compare Old English sunnstede.

compound

Now was it the season of the yeer past sun-stead in summer and neer unto the houre of noon-stead in the day, so as they journeyed in a way full of dust, when the sun was exceeding hot; and even now they began to feel thirst and weariness already.

1600, Livy, translated by Philemon Holland, The Romane Historie, London: Printed by Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 1193:

The summer-sunnestead falleth out alwaies [in Italie] to be just upon the foure and twentie day of June, at what time as the sunne is entred eight degrees within Cancer.

1635, Pliny the Elder; Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the VVorld: Commonly Called, the Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. Translated into English by Philemon Holland Doctor of Physicke, London: Printed by Adam Islip, and are to be sold by Iohn Grismond, in Ivy-lane at the signe of the Gun, OCLC 926240555, book XVIII, chapter xxvi; cited in Edward Smedley; Hugh James Rose; Henry John Rose, editors, Encyclopædia Metropolitana; or, Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, on an Original Plan: Comprising the Twofold Advantage of a Philosophical and an Alphabetical Arrangement, with Appropriate Engravings, volume XXV (Miscellaneous and Lexicographical, volume 12), London: B. Fellowes [et al.], 1845, OCLC 20598255, page 237

Sun-ſteads or Tropicks

1657, Plutarch, “The Table”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonly Called, the Morals, Written by the Learned Philosopher, Plutarch of Chæronea. Translated out of Greeke into English, and Conferred with the Latine Translations, and the French, by Philemon Holland, Doctor of Physicke. Whereunto are Annexed the Summaries Necessary to be Read Before Every Treatise. Newly Revised and Corrected, 2nd rev. and corr. edition, London: Printed by S. G. for J. Kirton, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Kings Armes in Saint Paules Church-yard, →OCLC, page 1161:

The Summer Solstice is the central point of the tropic (trepo, to turn), which begins upon the festival of Barnaby bright, and continues for three weeks. […] According to Olympiodorus, an Egyptian of the fifth century, the rising of the Dog-star was just twenty days after the estival "sunsted."

1832, The Anniversary Calendar, Natal Book, and Universal Mirror: Embracing Anniversaries of Persons, Events, Institutions, and Festivals, of All Denominations, Historical, Sacred, and Domestic, in Every Period and State of the World, from the Creation to the Present Age. … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: William Kidd, 228, Regent Street, →OCLC, page 413:

Sun-stead = solstice.

1859, Philological Society, Proposal for the Publication of a New English Dictionary by the Philological Society, London: Trübner and Co., 60 Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 12:

Sirius in the mouth of the watch dog vied in the dignity and importance of the significance of its ascent with the midnight appearance of Vindemiatrix in the left elbow of the headless virgin, on the horizon at the winter "sunstead" of six months later.

1908, Frank Pierce Foster with Charles Euchariste de Medicis Sajous, International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics, volume 88, New York, N.Y.: MD Publications, →OCLC, page 156:

Solitary Winter Sunstead and Yule (December 21) If a follower of the Old Way cannot find others of like mind to share a seasonal ritual in honor of High Valhalla, this rite may be performed by the solitary individual […]

1990, Ed Fitch, The Rites of Odin, St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, →ISBN, page 178:


fireworthiness

The state, condition, or quality of being fireworthy.


flashfire

A sudden, intense fire caused by the ignition of flammable substances in the air.


blackline

From black + line; compare redline, greenline.

A second squad uses drip torches to begin burning a 15- to 20-foot barrier or “blackline” inside the wetline.

2011, Colorado Outdoors, volumes 49-50, page 11:

The helicopter is used to burn blacklines when the relative humidity is above 50%, temperature is below 50 degrees F, and wind speed is less than 6 mph.

1991, Rangeland Technology Equipment Council Annual Report, USDA Forest Service:

(firefighting) A line of deliberately burned material created to stop the advance of a larger fire.


porphyrous

en-adj

porphyrous (comparative more porphyrous, superlative most porphyrous)

more porphyrous (comparative)
most porphyrous (superlative)


sunlighting

The amount of illumination provided by sunlight.


sunlighting

From sunlight + -ing, modelled on earlier moonlighting.

Working at another job when taking time off from one's regular (day) job.


Baily's beads

In honour of Francis Baily, who first fully explained the phenomenon in 1836.

(astronomy) A feature of total solar eclipses. As the moon "grazes" by the sun during a solar eclipse, the rugged lunar limb topography allows beads of sunlight to shine through in some places and not in others.


black as night

I wanna see it painted / painted black / black as night / black as coal

1966, The Rolling Stones (lyrics and music), “Paint It, Black”, in Aftermath:


fairy light

From the similarity of such a light to a fairy lamp (small candle lamp).

(usually in the plural) One of a set of decorative electric lights attached along the length of a cable.


pyrodiversity

Despite ambiguities in reconstructing presuppression fire behavior, there is wide agreement that a century of fire-suppression management has resulted in a large increase of dead and living fuel, increasing the probability of surface fires becoming crown fires of greater areal extent and intensity. That is, "pyrodiversity" has declined from a once wide spectrum over space, time, and intensity. The likely consequence is that biodiversity has declined as well (Martin and Sapsis 1992).

2000, Michael G. Barbour, Richard A. Minnich, “Californian Upland Forests and Woodlands”, in North American Terrestrial Vegetation, pages 180–181:

Some scientists suggest that pyrodiversity (the diversity in frequency, scale, season, and type of fire) leads to great biodiversity of plant species and vegetation types.

2005, Kat Anderson, Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources, page 18:

Consequently, as we see later in this book, Native Californians experimented with pyrodiversity practices in an attempt to diversify plant and animal resources and to minimize the risks of serious food shortages through storage, trade, and mass harvests when resources were plentiful.

2009, Kent G. Lightfoot, California Indians and Their Environment: An Introduction, page 70:

(ecology) A variation in the kinds of fire, whether produced by natural conditions or controlled burning, in an environment or ecosystem.


underfire

en-verb

underfire (third-person singular simple present underfires, present participle underfiring, simple past and past participle underfired)

underfires (present singular third-person)
underfiring (participle present)
underfired (participle past)
underfired (past)

/ˌʌndəˈfaɪə/

Often home owners select a [wood] stove that is too hot for the space to be heated. Many stove owners compensate by underfiring the stove, which causes poor performance, increased emissions and potential chimney fires by creosote buildup.

1999 June, “Homes & the Canadian Experience”, in Alexandra R. McKirdy, editor, The Canadian Renewable Energy Guide, 2nd edition, Burnstown, Ont.: General Store Publishing House [for the] Solar Energy Society of Canada, →ISBN, page 16, column 2:

If the burner is underfiring, the nozzle may need to be changed or the pressure at the outlet of the fuel pump may need to be adjusted.

2012, Eugene Silberstein, Residential Construction Academy: HVAC, 2nd edition, Clifton Park, N.Y.: Delmar, →ISBN, page 680:

(intransitive) To burn fuel at less than the desired level, thus not providing heat efficiently.


unburn

unburn (third-person singular simple present unburns, present participle unburning, simple past and past participle unburned)

unburns (present singular third-person)
unburning (participle present)
unburned (participle past)
unburned (past)

Similarly, you cannot 'unstir' the sugar from a cup of coffee once it has been dissolved, and you never see a pile of ash in the fireplace 'unburn' to become a log of wood again.

2002, Jim Al-Khalili, Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines, page 122:

In your class last year we learned that increase in entropy is why matches burn but never unburn, why cans rust but never unrust, and why engines are never perfectly efficient.

2009, Bradley Harris Dowden, The Metaphysics of Time: A Dialogue, page 122:

(intransitive) To undergo the process of burning in reverse.


dark-haired

en-adj

dark-haired (comparative more dark-haired or darker-haired, superlative most dark-haired or darkest-haired)

more dark-haired (comparative)
darker-haired (comparative)
most dark-haired (superlative)
darkest-haired (superlative)
darkhaired (alternative)

And M. [Henri-François-Alphonse] Esquiros, in describing the Dutch generally, speaks of beauties both blondes and brunettes, ‘for black hair is not uncommon in the Netherlands.’ These words seem to imply that black hair does not preponderate; and, if not, there must be a marked difference between the Dutch and the English. Here again is confirmation of the opinion that the modern English are somewhat more dark-haired than the ancient Saxons.

1866, Luke Owen Pike, “The Evidence of Physical Characteristics”, in The English and Their Origin. A Prologue to Authentic English History., London: Longmans, Green, and Co., pages 145–146:

Perhaps people felt by some form of symbolism or imitative magic that if the very first foot over the threshold was that of a dark-haired man, so might that hearth be safe for a whole year from the marauding Northmen. We listened to the chimes of Big Ben on the radio, and then as the last notes of the Old Year died away, Humphrey, who was the darkest-haired man present, ran to the door so as to come in and first foot us.

1968, Cherry Evans [pseudonym; Cherry Drummond, 16th Baroness Strange], Creatures Great and Small, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 88:

Maura was sixteen, with the Salter good looks. Darker-haired than her big sister Bridie, but she had the same soft grace.

2017, James Patterson with Alison Joseph, The Exile, New York, N.Y.: BookShots / Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 48:

Having hair of a dark color, usually dark brown.


silvery-haired

Alternative form of silver-haired (“having greyish-white hair”).


ginger-haired

having ginger-coloured hair, reddish-yellow or orangey-brown.


argamannu

Learned borrowing from Akkadian 𒅈𒂵𒈠𒉡 (argamannu).

lbor

The least frequently used dye was argamannu, which was also red and probably produced a shade of blue-purple, although different from that of takiltu.

2006, Stefan Zawadzki, Garments of the Gods: Studies on the Textile Industry and the Pantheon of Sippar According to the Texts from the Ebabbar Archive, Volume 1:


torchiere

torchieres (plural)
torchère (alternative)
torchière (alternative)
torchier (alternative)

A floor lamp with a bowl on top for reflecting light upwards.


catch on fire

en-verb

catch on fire (third-person singular simple present catches on fire, present participle catching on fire, simple past and past participle caught on fire)

catches on fire (present singular third-person)
catching on fire (participle present)
caught on fire (participle past)
caught on fire (past)

(informal, sometimes proscribed) Synonym of catch fire


œil-de-perdrix

Borrowed from French œil-de-perdrix (literally “eye of a partridge”).

bor

an œil-de-perdrix pattern

(art) Characterized by, or decorated with, small round spots or rings.

Having a brownish-red colour; used especially of light-coloured red wine.


blast lamp

A lamp provided with some arrangement for intensifying combustion by means of a blast.


water tender

A specialized firefighting apparatus designed for transporting water from a water source, such as a lake or hydrant, to a fire scene.


nut-brown

en-adj

nut-brown (comparative more nut-brown, superlative most nut-brown)

more nut-brown (comparative)
most nut-brown (superlative)

From Middle English nute-brun, equivalent to nut + brown.

nut-brown:

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow; a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails; and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, (1883), Chapter 1


Finsen light

en-noun

Finsen light (countable and uncountable, plural Finsen lights)

After Niels Ryberg Finsen (1860-1904), Faroese-Danish physician.

Highly actinic light, derived from sunlight or from some form of electric lamp, used in the treatment of lupus and other cutaneous disorders.


kugelblitz

Specifically, what she’s talking about is called a kugelblitz—a kind of black hole formed not from the collapse of matter, but from an overwhelming intensity of heat or radiation...or light.

2022, N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make, Orbit, page 303:

(theoretical physics) A concentration of light so intense that it forms an event horizon and becomes self-trapped, forming a black hole.


fustin

Cotinus coggygria
Cotinus coggygria#Translingual

A yellow dye obtained from fustic, Venetian sumach (Cotinus coggygria).


flamin'

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling


light-sensitive

en-adj

light-sensitive (comparative more light-sensitive, superlative most light-sensitive)

more light-sensitive (comparative)
most light-sensitive (superlative)

All lights are automatically extinguished at daylight by light-sensitive relay.

1963 August, “The semi-automatic Tees Yard of the North Eastern Region”, in Modern Railways, page 124:

святлоадчува́льны

affected by or sensitive to light — see also photosensitive

(of substances and surfaces) changing chemically or physically when exposed to light.

(biology) (of cells, tissue or organs) able to detect the presence (or intensity) of light.


TARDIS blue

From the color of the TARDIS, a time machine and spacecraft shaped like a police box, from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

He wore a black button-down shirt and gray slacks. […] On his feet, he wore his lucky shoes. The TARDIS blue was the only real color on him.

2014, Michele Zurlo, Kiss Me by Moonlight, Omnific Publishing, →ISBN:

The dark blue color of a traditional police box.


TARDIS blue

She wears a tacky T.A.R.D.I.S blue cardigan, buttoned to the max, over khaki slacks.

2014, Emma Gray, Groupies, Lulu Press, →ISBN, page 39:

She took a long drag and put the cigarette out in the blue ashtray on the living room table. Alex had given it to her two months after they first met. It was an odd, almost circular shape, but it was TARDIS blue and he thought Die might like it.

2015, Lucia Moroşanu, When Impossible Events Occur, →ISBN:


alder buckthorn

en-noun

alder buckthorn (plural alder buckthorns)

Frangula alnus
Frangula alnus#Translingual

A deciduous shrub, Frangula alnus, native to Europe and neighboring areas of Asia and Africa, bearing glossy leaves, flowers in sessile umbels, and inedible red berries that turn black when ripe, and historically used as a laxative and to produce dyes.


rain lamp

rain lamps (plural)
oil rain lamp (alternative)

Mother looked at the ladder, at the twin lofted beds, at the desk, at the closet, at the throw pillows, at the cheap decorations, at the artwork, at the Christmas lighting, at a rain lamp that I'd acquired a few weeks earlier. It was turned on, illuminated, beads of oil dripping down around a reasonable copy of Athena Parthenos.

2017, Jarett Kobek, The Future Won't Be Long:

(lighting) A type of lamp, popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, that moves droplets of water or oil along filaments to create the illusion of falling rain.


lunar lifeboat

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-lunar lifeboat.wav

At 141 hours and 30 minutes, the Lunar Module, Aquarius, after successfully fulfilling its contingency role as a Lunar Lifeboat, was jettisoned in preparation for the final plunge into the Earth's atmosphere.

1970, Jim Lovell, "The Flight of Apollo 13—A Successful Failure," Society of Experimental Test Pilots Technical Review, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 130 (Google search result) (retrieved 30 July 2015)

As the "lunar lifeboat" neared the Earth, the hard problem loomed of how to separate the vehicles before they entered the atmosphere.

1970 Sept., Steven Morris, "How Blacks View Mankind's “GIANT STEP”," Ebony, p. 35 (Google preview) (retrieved 30 July 2015)

[T]he world held its collective breath as the astronauts of Apollo 13 climbed into their lunar lifeboat Aquarius and safely returned to earth.

2012 September 13, Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, “Sermon”, in Washington National Cathedral, retrieved 2015-07-30:

(space sciences) In the US Apollo moon program, a lunar module repurposed as a makeshift shelter for an astronaut crew returning to earth after a mishap necessitating cancellation of a moon landing; the emergency procedure of using the lunar module in this manner.


bromosulfophthalein

In case of the ex-vivo perfusion, we further assessed liver function (bile production, bromosulfophthalein clearance) and Western blot analysis of phosphorylated adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase (AMPK), mitogen activated protein kinases family (MAPKs) and endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) parameters (GRP78, PERK, IRE, eIF2α and ATF6).

2015 July 31, “Carbonic Anhydrase Protects Fatty Liver Grafts against Ischemic Reperfusion Damage”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

A dye used in various medical tests of liver function. Abbreviated to BSP.


photoirradiation

Materials that can be deformed by photoirradiation are not unknown, but generally consist of polymer films and gels and are rather slow-acting.

2007 April 17, Henry Fountain, “In Arctic Foxes, Clues to Effects of Shrinking Habitat”, in New York Times:


lightning bird

A mythological creature in South African tribal folklore: a large, vampiric, black and white bird that can summon thunder and lightning and is said to consume blood and to seduce women in the form of a man.


International Klein Blue

Named after French artist Yves Klein, who first mixed it.

(art) An intense deep blue hue achieved by means of ultramarine pigment and a binder.

Internasionale Klein-blou

deep blue hue achieved through ultramarine pigment and a binder


firebomber

One who carries out a firebombing attack.


nightshining

(poetic, nonstandard) Shining or glowing at night; noctilucent.


extragalactic background light

extragalactic background light (uncountable)

From extragalactic + background + light.

An international group of researchers has developed a new way to measure accurately the extragalactic background light (EBL) that fills the universe. The technique involves measuring the attenuation of high-energy gamma rays from distant blazars and it could improve our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve, as well as how the universe has expanded since the Big Bang

2013 March 27, Tushna Commissariat, “Blazars help measure extragalactic background light”, in PhysicsWorld:

Ground-based observatories have been collecting 0.2 - 20 TeV gamma rays from blazars for about twenty years. These gamma rays can experience absorption along the line of sight due to interactions with the extragalactic background light (EBL). In this paper, we show that the gamma-ray optical depth can be reduced to the convolution product of an EBL kernel with the EBL intensity, assuming a particular form for the EBL evolution

2015, Jonathan Biteau, David A. Williams, "The extragalactic background light, the Hubble constant, and anomalies: conclusions from 20 years of TeV gamma-ray observations", arXiv; (1502.04166) [14 February 2015]

active galactic nuclei
active galactic nuclei#English

All the accumulated radiation in the universe due to star formation processes, plus a contribution from active galactic nuclei (AGNs).