sprezzatura

sprezzatura (usually uncountable, plural sprezzaturas)

Borrowed from Italian sprezzatura (“nonchalance”), which was coined in 1528 by Baldassare Castiglione; the term gained currency in English in the mid-20th century, often to describe art.

[…] I have found quite a universal rule which in this matter seems to me valid above all others, and in all human affairs whether in word or deed: and that is to avoid affectation in every way possible as though it were some very rough and dangerous reef; and (to pronounce a new word perhaps) to practice in all things a certain sprezzatura [nonchalance]^([sic]), so as to conceal all art and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.

1959, Charles S. Singleton, transl., The Book of the Courtier, translation of Il libro del Cortegiano by Baldassare Castiglione, The First Book, page 43:

Cassandra Wilson's music is the essence of sprezzatura, or calculated nonchalance, that special attitude described nearly 500 years ago by Baldassare Castiglione in “The Courtier,” his primer on how to ingratiate yourself with the aristocracy.

2002 February 19, Ben Ratliff, “Seeming So Nonchalant Can Be Harder Than It Looks”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Mr. Mork played with soulful intensity (and impeccable intonation), and the interplay between him and Mr. Repin, with nicely coordinated gestures and phrasings, was enjoyable to watch. But Mr. Repin’s technical struggles were all too evident — the very opposite of sprezzatura.

2013 August 18, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, “Unloading the Weightiness of Brahms With a Few Flicks”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

In men's fashion the ultimate style move is sprezzatura, embracing intentional errors such as undone buttons and misaligned neckties. Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat, wore watches over his shirtsleeves.

2022, W. David Marx, chapter 4, in Status and Culture, Viking, →ISBN:

(chiefly art, music) The art of performing a difficult task so gracefully that it looks effortless; calculated nonchalance.


cello

→ Tokelauan: helo

Clipping of violoncello, the original name, from Italian violoncello (“little violone”), from violone (“an early form of the double bass”) + -cello (“-elle”, forming diminutives), violone (“big viola”) itself being derived from viola + -one (“-oon”, forming augmentatives).

I haven't always been this cool because I haven't always played guitar. I started out on the cello. Yeah, the cello is a wonderful, beautiful instrument. It's cool to be an adult that plays the cello. Being a kid that played the cello sucked, cause there's no way to be cool when your instrument is larger than you. When you walk to school with a cello you're like a wounded gazelle on the Serengeti, man. The bullies just smell you coming from a mile away.

2006 Nov. 22, Rob Paravonian, "Pachabel Rant", 00:00:33

Fitzgerald saw that Hemingway, oppressed by his mother's influence, was "still rebelling against having been made to take cello lessons when growing up."

2020 Aug. 9, Jeffrey Meyers, "Fitzgerald and Hemingway: A Tortured Friendship", The Article

A large unfretted stringed instrument of the violin family with four strings tuned (lowest to highest) C-G-D-A and an endpin to support its weight, usually played with a bow.


quena

Coordinate term: charango

One song the group performed on Thursday, “La Partida,” featured lovely bell harmonics from the guitars, a shifting pattern of cross‐rhythms on the guitar‐like charango, and a quena lead.

1978 April 14, “Music: Inti‐Illimani, From the Andes”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

As the band’s traditional instrumentalist, Yuri Callisaya, shrilled on the quena, the band’s fans sang along with Mr. Méndez: “Ama sua, ama llulla, ama quella,” which translates as, “Don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t be lazy.”

2013 December 31, William Neuman, “Headbanging in Bolivia to the Flutes of Yore”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(music) A traditional flute of the Andes.


aubergine

Bislama: obesin

Unadapted borrowing from French aubergine, from Catalan albergínia, from Arabic اَلْبَاذِنْجَان (al-bāḏinjān, “the aubergine”), from Persian بادنجان (bâdenjân), from باتنجان (bâtenjân), from Sanskrit वातिगगम (vātigagama, “the plant that cures the wind”), cognate with Malayalam വഴുതന (vaḻutana). Doublet of brinjal.

der

اَلْبَاذِنْجَان

aubergine:


Helios

From Ancient Greek Ἥλιος (Hḗlios), from ἥλιος (hḗlios, “sun”).

(Greek mythology) The god of the Sun; son of Hyperion and Theia, brother of Selene and Eos, father of Phaeton amongst others. His Roman counterpart is Sol.


Hephaestus

From Ancient Greek Ἥφαιστος (Hḗphaistos), a pre-Greek word of unknown origin.

(Greek mythology) The god of fire, smithwork, metallurgy, volcanoes, and artisans, who served as blacksmith of the gods. His Roman counterpart is Vulcan.


Polyhymnia

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Πολυύμνια (Poluúmnia), Πολύμνια (Polúmnia)

lbor

(Greek mythology) The Muse of sacred music.


buzzing

en-noun

buzzing (countable and uncountable, plural buzzings)

I can hear buzzing coming from the television.

The sound produced by something that buzzes.


thunderclap

en-verb

thunderclap (third-person singular simple present thunderclaps, present participle thunderclapping, simple past and past participle thunderclapped)

thunderclaps (present singular third-person)
thunderclapping (participle present)
thunderclapped (participle past)
thunderclapped (past)

It struck just before dark, a massive black geyser of oil and gas that thunderclapped from the well, soaring a hundred feet into the air and then even higher, […]

2000, Arelo C. Sederberg, Zora, page 309:

So many sensations — the feel of his strong fingers gripping her shoulders, his heart thunderclapping in his chest, his legs and hips aligned with hers, as if the two of them had been fashioned out of the same block of clay.

2003, Kathryn Shay, Against the Odds, page 118:

(intransitive) To produce a loud burst of sound like a thunderclap.


Euterpe

(Greek mythology) The Muse of music and lyric poetry.

(astronomy) 27 Euterpe, a main belt asteroid.


sable

en-noun

sable (countable and uncountable, plural sables)

Attested since 1275, from Middle English sable, from Old French sable and martre sable (“sable marten”), in reference to the animal or its fur; from Medieval Latin sabelum, from Middle Low German sabel (compare Middle Dutch sabel, Middle High German zobel); ultimately from a Slavic word (compare Russian со́боль (sóbolʹ), Polish soból, Czech sobol). Doublet of sobol. Compare also Middle Persian smwl (*samōr).

sable (heraldry):

(heraldry) A black colour on a coat of arms (Wikipedia).


sable

en-adj

sable (comparative sabler, superlative sablest)

sabler (comparative)
sablest (superlative)

(heraldry): In blazon, of the colour black.

Some of the sable females, who formerly stood aloof, now began to relax and appear less coy; but my heart was still fixed on London, where I hoped to be ere long.

1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 7, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I:

Ethnologists are in the wrong / About our sable brothers[.]

1880 June 19, Henry Kendall, “My Piccaninny”, in The Australian Town and Country Journal, page 28, column 4:

Of this one of the drovers writes thus: - "Very soon there will be homesteads and stations dotted all over the Territory within easy distances of one another, driving our sable brethren from their ancient hunting grounds."

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 281:

For twelve long months I had to pace, / Humping my swag with a cadging face, / Sleeping in the bush, like the sable race.

1905, Banjo Paterson, Old Bush Songs, page 40:

(archaic, literary) Dark-skinned; Black.


funky

funky (comparative funkier or more funky, superlative funkiest or most funky)

funkier (comparative)
more funky (comparative)
funkiest (superlative)
most funky (superlative)

(music) Relating to or reminiscent of various genres of African American music, especially funk.


picked

picked (comparative more picked, superlative most picked)

more picked (comparative)
most picked (superlative)


glower

From an alteration (possibly Scots) of glore, from Middle English glōren, glouren (“to gleam; to glare, glower”); or from glow (“to stare”) (obsolete), and ultimately from a Scandinavian (North Germanic) language. Cognate with Low German gloren (“to flicker; to glimmer”), Middle Dutch gloren, Icelandic glóra. See more at glare.

cog

She sure has an awful glower on her face.

[H]e [Rab, a dog] growled and gave now and then a sharp impatient yelp; he would have liked to have done something to that man. But James had him firm, and gave him a glower from time to time, and an intimation of a possible kick;—all the better for James, it kept his eye and his mind off Ailie.

1862, John Brown, “Rab and His Friends”, in Spare Hours, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 33:

"I thought we could go a bit farther to the back pasture. You can get a better view." / "Of the extensive Bannister estate?" she said with a wry tone. / "Of the ranch," he said, a glower showing her that he didn't fully appreciate her comment.

2015, Carolyne Aarsen, chapter 6, in The Cowboy’s Homecoming (Love Inspired Books), New York, N.Y.: Harlequin, →ISBN, page 89:

"Enough," Nathaniel repeated as he kept a tight hold on their suspenders. "What's been said was said. What's been done has been done. It's over. Let is go." / The glowers the boys gave him warned Nathaniel that he was wasting his breath.

2016, Jo Ann Brown, chapter 1, in His Amish Sweetheart (Love Inspired Books; Amish Hearts; 3), New York, N.Y.: Harlequin, →ISBN:


glower

From Middle English glouere, equivalent to glow + -er.

Table 45 presents computed relative and absolute values for the spectral radiant emittance of a Nernst glower at T = 1965 and 2000°K (the corresponding emissivities are 0.427 and 0.438).

1968, Mikaél’ A[bramovič] Bramson, “Special Infrared Sources”, in Richard B. Rodman, transl., edited by William L. Wolfe, Infrared Radiation: A Handbook for Applications: With a Collection of Reference Tables (Optical Physics and Engineering), New York, N.Y.: Plenum Press, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Springer-Verlag, 2013, →DOI, →ISBN, § 3 (Infrared Incandescent Lamps), page 274:


Vesta

From Middle English Vesta, from Latin Vesta, related to Ancient Greek ἑστία (hestía, “to dwell”) and Ἑστία (Hestía, “Hestia”), all from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-; see also Old High German and Old English wesan (“to be”), Gothic wisan, Sanskrit वसति (vasati, “abide dwell”).
Vesta itself came to mean chaste, pure, or virgin, based from this goddess.

(Roman mythology) The virgin goddess of the hearth, fire, and the household, and therefore a deity of domestic life. The Roman counterpart of Hestia.

A female given name from Latin in occasional use.

(astronomy) The fourth asteroid discovered, and second largest, (4) Vesta.


Tin Pan Alley

Purported to be a reference to the constant sound of pianos as songwriters worked out their tunes.

From its inception the OWI framed directives that offered guidelines for songwriters to aid them in the composition of “proper” war songs, and, in the public press, the OWI rebuked Tin Pan Alley for its uninterrupted production of “nostalgic” hit songs.

2003, Kathleen E. R. Smith, God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 81:

At the time, almost all Tin Pan Alley and Broadway songs had two parts.

2009, Tighe E. Zimmers, Tin Pan Alley Girl: A Biography of Ann Ronell, McFarland, →ISBN, page 11:

(metonymically, music) The songwriting and publishing industry which was built around the songs produced in Tin Pan Alley; the style of popular music produced by this industry.


solar

From Late Middle English solar, from Latin sōlāris, from sōl (“sun”), from Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥ (“sun”).

a solar furnace


solar

He’s a player in robots and solar, cryptocurrency and climate, brain-computer implants to stave off the menace of artificial intelligence and underground tunnels to move people and freight at super speeds.

December 13 2021, Molly Ball, Jeffrey Kluger, Alejandro de la Garza, “Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021”, in Time Magazine:


kelly green

American coinage, in reference to the Irish surname Kelly and the association of Ireland with the color green.

kelly green:

They were on their way to a clambake, a Friday night with friends at the marina. Wearing a kelly green tennis dress with white espadrilles, she was carrying a sheet cake resembling a flag, blueberries and strawberries as the stars and stripes arranged across a layer of whipped cream.

2022, Ling Ma, “Tomorrow”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:


forest green

forest green:

A dark green colour, like that of forest foliage.


forest green

Of a dark green colour, like that of forest foliage.


Alice blue

From the name of Alice Roosevelt Longworth (daughter of Theodore Roosevelt), who favoured the colour and made it fashionable in the US.


hunter green

en-noun

hunter green (usually uncountable, plural hunter greens)

hunter green:

It is not, thank God, hunter green, the green that for a decade now has permeated every product line from polo shirts to potato peeler handles

2000, Rob Levandoski, Serendipity green, page 115:


slate blue

slate blue (countable and uncountable, plural slate blues)

slate blue:

liuskeenharmaa

dark bluish-grey colour — see also slate, slate gray, blue-gray


olive drab

olive drab (countable and uncountable, plural olive drabs)

BS 381C olive drab:

FS 595 olive drab:

RAL 6022 olive drab:

X11 olive drab:

A greyish green colour, like that of a ripe green olive; almost invariably with a matte finish.

Cloth of an olive drab colour, used often for military uniforms.


olive drab

Of a greyish green colour, like that of a ripe green olive.


peacock blue

peacock blue (countable and uncountable, plural peacock blues)

peacock blue:

A brilliant, dark blue-green colour, like the plumage of a peacock.


peacock blue

Jo read the following words, inscribed in peacock blue ink, in a near cursive hand.

1980 April 19, Andrea Loewenstein, “Random Lust”, in Gay Community News, page 10:


fossil fuel

Coordinate term: renewable

Without renewables, we’ll still end up burning (albeit much more efficiently) the same coal and natural gas that we burn today in our power plants and the same fuel oil that we burn in our cars and trucks. And it is precisely these carbon-based fossil fuels that we must distance ourselves from if we really want to come to grips with our dependence on foreign oil and with global warming.

2006 October 11, Robert B. Semple Jr., “Beyond Fossil Fuels”, in New York Times:

The basic point is that we are entering uncharted territory. This toothless statement has been true at every point in history. But I believe that this century is the one in which we must confront the thorniest issue ever presented to the human race. This moment is special because we have dramatically built up our population, technology, science, medicine, and democratic institutions as a direct result of vast amounts of surplus energy stemming from a one-time resource. The fossil fuel experience has made us dangerously confident about our cleverness and dominance over nature. What makes this century special, then, is that we will have to cope with a diminishing supply rate of the resource that has been of paramount importance to our high-tech existence.

2011 October 5, Tom Murphy, “"Sustainable" Means Bunkty to Me”, in Do the Math:

Any fuel derived from hydrocarbon deposits such as coal, petroleum, natural gas and, to some extent, peat; these fuels are non-renewable, and their burning moves carbon from underground into the atmosphere via the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

biofuel

likewise from biologic origins, but recent and renewable


missa

From Ecclesiastical Latin missa (“mass”).

(music) a mass, in the sense of a composition setting several sung parts of the liturgical service (most often chosen from the ordinary parts Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Agnus Dei and/or Sanctus) to music, notably when the text in Latin is used (as long universally prescribed by Rome)


tinder

tinder (countable and uncountable, plural tinders)

From Middle English tinder, tunder, tender, tonder, from Old English tynder, from Proto-Germanic *tundrą, *tundrǭ (“tinder”). Compare Saterland Frisian Tunder (“tinder”), Dutch tonder (“tinder”), German Zunder (“tinder”), Swedish tända (“to light, to set on fire”). More at tind.

cog

Strike on the Tinder, hoa: / Giue me a Taper: […]

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 311, line 157:

Small dry sticks and finely-divided fibrous matter etc., used to help light a fire.


bower

One who plays any of several bow instruments, such as the musical bow or diddley bow.


antique brass

A brownish yellow colour, like that of brass, but darker.


antique brass

Of a brownish yellow colour, like that of brass, but darker.


battleship grey

en-noun

battleship grey (countable and uncountable, plural battleship greys)

battleship grey:

A medium grey colour tinged with blue, like that of a battleship.


battleship grey

Of a medium grey colour tinged with blue, like that of a battleship.


apple-green

apple-green (countable and uncountable, plural apple-greens)

apple-green:

bright apple-green:

A bright green colour with a light tint of yellow, like that of a Granny Smith apple.


bronze yellow

bronze yellow:

A yellowish brown colour, like that of bronze.


bronze yellow

en-adj

bronze yellow (comparative more bronze yellow, superlative most bronze yellow)

more bronze yellow (comparative)
most bronze yellow (superlative)

Of a yellowish brown colour, like that of bronze.


burlywood

burlywood:

A brown sandy colour, of RGB hexadecimal value #DEB887.


blue violet

en-noun

blue violet (countable and uncountable, plural blue violets)

blue violet:


carroty

en-adj

carroty (comparative more carroty, superlative most carroty)

more carroty (comparative)
most carroty (superlative)

The pupil, thus affectionately invoked, at length came stumbling into the room; a queer, shambling, ill-made urchin, who, by his stunted growth, seemed about twelve or thirteen years old, though he was probably, in reality, a year or two older, with a carroty pate in huge disorder, a freckled, sunburnt visage, with a snub nose, a long chin, and two peery grey eyes […]

1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

"All the north is seething," said Gerard. "We must contrive to agitate the metropolis," said Maclast, a shrewd carroty-haired paper-stainer.

1845, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter VIII, in Sybil; or The Two Nations. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, book V, page 101:

Resembling carrots in colour, taste, shape etc.

marchewkowy

resembling carrots in colour, taste, etc.


firepole

A fixed metal pole, installed in a multi-storey building or firehouse, that allows the occupants to quickly descend floors.


cinereous

cinereous (comparative more cinereous, superlative most cinereous)

more cinereous (comparative)
most cinereous (superlative)

Latin cinereus, from cinis, cineris (“ashes”).


cool gray

cool gray:


royal blue

royal blue (comparative more royal blue, superlative most royal blue)

more royal blue (comparative)
most royal blue (superlative)


clair de lune

Borrowed from French clair de lune (“moonlight”).

clair de lune:


cornsilk

cornsilk:

A very light yellow colour, like that of corn silk.

Alternative form of corn silk (the thready fibres of stigmata of corn (maize))


cornsilk

Of a very light yellow colour, like that of corn silk.


Cambridge blue

en-noun

Cambridge blue (countable and uncountable, plural Cambridge blues)

Perhaps related to the colour of a body of water: Cambridge has a famous boating club, and at one time used light blue as a school colour. "The greening of Cambridge blue is often attributed to Alf Twinn, university boatman between 1934 and 1984, who, either because he wanted to distinguish the rowing colours from the rugby union team's, or because his eyesight was deteriorating, began adding subtle amounts of yellow to the blue paint used for oar blades."

Cambridge blue:

A medium spring green colour used by sports teams from the University of Cambridge.


cupreous

en-adj

cupreous (comparative more cupreous, superlative most cupreous)

more cupreous (comparative)
most cupreous (superlative)

From Latin cupreus, from cuprum (“copper”).

Of a reddish-brown color, like that of polished copper.


burnt sienna

We drink the last of the spring water in our canteens and, still thirsty, look to the river, that sombre flow the color of burnt sienna, raw umber, muy colorado, too thin to plow–as the Mormons say–and too thick to drink.

1968, Edward Abbey, “Down the River”, in Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, McGraw-Hill; republished New York: Touchstone, 1968, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 160:

burnt sienna:

dark reddish brown colour, like that of roasted sienna.


burnt sienna

Of a dark reddish brown colour, like that of roasted sienna.


virid

virid (comparative more virid, superlative most virid)

more virid (comparative)
most virid (superlative)

From Middle English viride (“verdigris”, adjective, noun) [and other forms] + English -id (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives and nouns). Viride is borrowed from Latin viridis (“green; (figuratively) fresh; lively; young, youthful”), from vireō (“to be green or verdant; to sprout new green growth; to flourish; to be lively or vigorous”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weys- (“to procreate; to produce; to increase; to raise”). Doublet of verdant and vert.

der

Her tombe vvas not of viride Spartane greet, / Nor yet by cunning hand of Scopas vvrought, / But built of poliſht ſtone, and thereon laid / The liuely ſhape and purtrait of the maid.

1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Twelfth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC, stanza 94, page 231:

The palace here, and there a virid mound, / Confine a flow'ry ſpot of graſſy ground.

1758, [James Macpherson], The Highlander: […], Edinburgh: […] Wal[ter] Ruddiman jun. and Company, →OCLC, canto IV, page 52:

Virid fields would heave brownly under their ploughs; they would find that with practice it was almost as easy to chuckle as it was to cringe.

1921 October, James Branch Cabell, “The Story of the Satraps”, in Chivalry: Dizain des Reines, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Robert M[edill] McBride & Company, page 170:

His protuberant eyeballs were veined with red like certain kinds of rare marble. He urged me to meditate upon the virid line of the whirling universe.

1977, Angela Carter, chapter 2, in The Passion of New Eve, London: Virago Press, published 1992, →ISBN, page 13:

When the liver has been struck by wind, the victim desires only to squat down and is unable even to lower his head. If the skin around the eyes and on the forehead has taken on a slightly virid hue, the lips have turned virid, and the face yellow, treatment is still possible. […] If, however, the color is a deeply virid or even black and if the face is sometimes yellow and sometimes white, the liver has already suffered irreparable harm.

1985, Paul U[lrich] Unschuld, “[Appendix: Primary Texts in Translation] Chu-ping yüan hou lun”, in Medicine in China: A History of Ideas (Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care), Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →ISBN, section 3.1 (Symptomatology of [the Illness] “Hit-by-Wind”), page 297:


pedal

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pedal (noun, verb).wav

Borrowed from French pédale, Latin pedāl(is).

(music) An effects unit, especially one designed to be activated by being stepped on.

A small organ commonly has only one or two ranks on the pedal.

(music) The ranks of pipes played from the pedal-board of an organ.


enriched uranium

(chemistry, military) Uranium enriched with a higher than normal amount of the fissile isotope U-235; used in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.

verrykte uraan

uranium enriched with a higher amount of U-235


blue green

en-noun

blue green (countable and uncountable, plural blue greens)

* blue + green
* (politics): from blue representing conservatism and green representing environmentalism

blue green:

Blue-greens were the principal primary producers throughout the Proterozoic eon from 2.5 billion to 543 million years ago.

2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 287:


blue green

Alternative form of blue-green
Of a bluish green colour.

(politics) Synonym of ecocapitalist; Pertaining to ecocapitalism


eggshell blue

The sky was clear and eggshell blue.

2005, Gareth Roberts, Only Human, page 63:


sibilant

en-adj

sibilant (comparative more sibilant, superlative most sibilant)

more sibilant (comparative)
most sibilant (superlative)

From Latin sībilāns, present active participle of sībilō (“I hiss”).

She had a curious habit of prefacing everything she said with a soft sibilant sound.
"S-s-s Grace," she said, "it's just like I was telling Brother Hutson the other day. 'S-s-s Brother Hutson,' I said, 'looks like we're fighting a losing battle, a losing battle.' I said."

1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:

Characterized by a hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.


sibilant

Groove fricatives all have more or less of an [s]-like quality, and are for this reason sometimes called sibilants.

1955, H. A. Gleason, An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics, page 194, section 14.7:

(phonetics) A consonant having a hissing or hushing sound such as the s or sh in sack or shack.


Bunsen burner

Named after German chemist and inventor Robert Bunsen, who invented the burner.

named-after

The due performance of Bunsen's burner depends upon the proper admixture of gas and air.

1866, John Joseph Griffin, Chemical Handicraft: A Classified and Descriptive Catalogue of Chemical Apparatus:

Although the Bunsen burner has been in extensive use for several years, there would seem to be a very well-grounded suspicion that its capabilities have not yet been fully discovered, for applications for patents for inventions, which are based on the Bunsen burner, or on modifications of it, are occasionally found in the official journal of the Patent Office.

1875 October 1, English Mechanic and World of Science, volume 22, page 56:

Flame sterilisation is a frequently used technique in the microbiology laboratory and Bunsen burners are commonly used to provide the flame.

2007, Ilan Patrick, Microbiological Analysis of Grapes and Wine: Techniques and Concepts:

(sciences) A small laboratory gas burner whose air supply may be controlled with an adjustable hole.


dove grey

dove grey:

(British spelling) A medium grey colour with a slight tint of pink or blue, like that of a dove.


dove grey

The interior colour scheme departs from the conventional L.T. red and green upholstery and matching paintwork, which has been replaced by a maroon and grey moquette with dove grey paint below the waist rail.

1960 February, “The first of London's new Piccadilly Line trains is delivered”, in Trains Illustrated, page 94:

(British spelling) Of a medium grey colour with a slight tint of pink or blue, like that of a dove.


gamboge

en-noun

gamboge (countable and uncountable, plural gamboges)

From New Latin gambogium, cambogium (“resin from trees used to make yellow dye”), from New Latin Gambogia, Cambogia (“Cambodia”). The Latin word was first attested in English as a colour in 1634. Doublet of Cambodia and Kampuchea.

Clusiaceæ, or Guttiferæ, a natural order of trees or shrubs belonging to the Dicotyledons (division Thalamifloræ), natives of the humid tropics of S. America. [...] Most of the plants have acrid properties, and yield a yellow resin. Among the chief and common plants of the order are Gambooge (q.v.), Mangosteen fruit (Garcinia Mangostana), [...]

1877, “Clusiaceæ, or Guttiferæ”, in John M[erry] Ross, editor, The Globe Encyclopædia of Universal Information, volume II, Boston, Mass.: Estes & Lauriat, […], →OCLC, page 178, column 2:

One of several species of trees of the genus Garcinia found in South and Southeastern Asia, especially Garcinia xanthochymus.


gunmetal-grey

The Altamaha-ha, as the serpent has been named, is said to be from twelve to twenty feet long, about two feet in diameter, and gunmetal gray on top with a creamy underside. Most descriptions suggest a creature that is part eel, part alligator, ...

2005, Emily Ellison, Chuck Perry, Liars and Legends, Thomas Nelson, →ISBN:

Of a dark grey colour with a tint of blue.


eau de nil

Unadapted borrowing from French eau de nil (literally “water of the Nile”).


cerulean

en-adj

cerulean (comparative more cerulean, superlative most cerulean)

more cerulean (comparative)
most cerulean (superlative)

From Latin caeruleus (“blue”) + -an, from caelum (“sky, heaven”) + -uleus (diminutive suffix).

affix

As far to the west as Monica could see, her world was a sea of fog, […]. Above it arched a cerulean sky; as the sun climbed to the zenith, […], the fog gradually took on a bluish tinge.

1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter II, in The Understanding Heart:

Oh Ramona, if there was only some kind of future / And these cerulean skies / Something in our skies, something in our skies

1995, “The Hearts Filthy Lesson”, in 1. Outside, performed by David Bowie:

But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets?

2006, Aline Brosh McKenna, Lauren Weisberger, The Devil Wears Prada, spoken by Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep):


burgundy

en-adj

burgundy (comparative more burgundy, superlative most burgundy)

more burgundy (comparative)
most burgundy (superlative)

1881, from attributive use of Burgundy (“wine from Burgundy”) from Burgundy wine, from Burgundy (“region of France”) + wine.

She and her beige-chemised assistant entered the salonlike fourth-floor showroom and were ushered into a smaller private room with burgundy carpeting that matched Rubylee's J. Tiktiner print dress.

1981, “Texas Monthly”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 9, number 1, page 96:

Of a deep purple red color like that of Burgundy wine.


buckskin

en-noun

buckskin (countable and uncountable, plural buckskins)

From Middle English bukskyn; equivalent to buck + skin.

I have alluded to his buckskins.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

buckskin:

A soft strong leather, usually yellowish or grayish in color, made of deerskin.

abaní

a soft strong leather, usually yellowish or grayish in color, made of deerskin

Cornwallis fought as lang's he dought, / An' did the buckskins claw, man.

1784, Robert Burns, Ballad on the American War:

A person clothed in buckskin, particularly an American soldier of the Revolutionary war.

A horse with a light yellowish-brown coat.


butterscotch

butterscotch (usually uncountable, plural butterscotches)

/ˈbʌtɚˌskɑt͡ʃ/

From butter + scotch, with the second element deriving (not from scotch whiskey or Scotland, but) from Middle English scocchen (“to score, nick, cut”), in reference to how the candy is boiled and hardened and then usually scored to make breaking it apart easier. The word is usually said to have originally been a trademark of Parkinson's, who is claimed to have invented it.

der

A hard candy made from butter, brown sugar, syrup and vanilla.

A sauce or syrup made of similar ingredients.

奶油糖漿

butterscotch:

A light brown colour, like that of butterscotch candy.


butterscotch

/ˈbʌtɚˌskɑt͡ʃ/

Of a light brown colour, like that of butterscotch candy.


brick red

Of a warm brownish-red colour similar to that of red clay bricks.


murmur

en-verb

murmur (third-person singular simple present murmurs, present participle murmuring, simple past and past participle murmured)

murmurs (present singular third-person)
murmuring (participle present)
murmured (participle past)
murmured (past)

From Middle English murmur, murmor, murmour, from Old French murmure (modern French murmure), from Latin murmur (“murmur, humming, muttering, roaring, growling, rushing etc.”).

der

The Iewes then murmured at him because he sayde: I am that breed which is come doune from heaven.

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, John vj:[41]:

And now, behold thy brothers murmur, saying it is a hard thing which I have required of them; but behold I have not required it of them, but it is a commandment of the Lord.

(intransitive, now rare) To grumble; to complain in a low, muttering voice, or express discontent at or against someone or something.


solar wind

(astronomy) The outflow of charged particles from the solar corona into space. Because of the high temperature of the particles of the corona, they are moving at speeds higher than the solar escape velocity.


gainsboro

A color named "gainsboro" was added to the X11 color chart by Paul Raveling in 1989. Raveling explained that he introduced a number of "light and off-white colors, copied from several Sinclair Paints color samples", of which gainsboro appears to be one.

gainsboro:

By using light gray or Gainsboro we are using Edward Tufte's principle of "minimum effective difference" to put in ancillary information.

2005 May 21, David Park, “Re: GridLines issue”, in comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica (Usenet):

When the temperature reached to^([sic]) about 40 °C, the color of characters began to change, and it changed completely from black to gainsboro when the temperature rose to about 50 °C. As the[…]film cooled down to the room temperature, the color returned to black.

2017, Guoliang Wang et al., “AgNW/Chinese Xuan paper film heaters for electro-thermochromic paper display”, in Materials Research Express, volume 4, number 11:


floral white

floral white:


flare

→ Italian: flare

Origin unknown, first recorded in the mid 16th century, probably related to Latin flagrō (“I burn”). Norwegian flara (“to blaze; to flaunt in gaudy attire”) has a similar meaning, but the English word predates it. Possibly related to Middle High German vlederen (“to flutter”), represented by modern German flattern.
The noun is derived from the verb.

unknown

Origin unknown

Stulp

widening of an object with otherwise roughly constant width

разкрояване

widening of the lower legs of trousers and jeans

Flares were used to steer the traffic away from the accident.

The flares attracted the heat-seeking missiles.

Stowed away in the plane Jack had a signal pistol and several red and green cartridges, but until a search plane appeared the flares would be useless.

1946, Clayton Knight, The Quest of the Golden Condor, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC, page 262:

While he was putting on the snowplough, the Whites shot up a flare to see what was happening. It floated above us like a fizzing star at the end of a tiny white petal of a parachute. We threw ourselves down, in between the rails, in there with the dog shit.

2009, James Fleming, chapter 55, in Cold Blood, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN; republished London: Vintage Books, 2010, →ISBN, page 262:

A source of brightly burning light or intense heat.

A type of pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light without an explosion, used to attract attention in an emergency, to illuminate an area, or as a decoy.

Flare stacks are used in gas plants, petroleum refineries, and petrochemical plants to combust surplus hydrocarbons to produce combustion products that are neither toxic nor combustible. Flares frequently incorporate a liquid-gas separator at the base of the stack and steam assisted burner nozzles at the top of the stack to aid complete combustion.

2013, David Brennan, “Identification of Waste in Utility Systems”, in Sustainable Process Engineering: Concepts, Strategies, Evaluation, and Implementation, Singapore: Pan Stanford Publishing, →ISBN, part B (Strategies), section 6.8 (Flare Stacks), page 122:

(oil industry) A flame produced by a burn-off of waste gas (flare gas) from a flare tower (or flare stack), typically at an oil refinery.

In the early 1970's, a giddy epoch in men's fashion, when denim flares and platform oxfords were the outer edge of style, Giorgio Armani made a suit that stretched. Imbued with spandex, the elastic fiber that gives a fabric extra bounce, the suit was one of the first in a long line of innovations that would eventually make Armani as familiar a brand as Kleenex.

1991 September 15, Ruth La Ferla, “Next weave”, in The New York Times Magazine, archived from the original on 2018-08-20:

As a teenager I hitch-hiked around free rock concerts, wearing flowered shirts and denim flares – jeans that were worn so much, in such rough conditions, and with so little attention to washing and care that after a while they became naturally abraded and frayed in just the manner that is simulated by commerce today.

2012, Daniel Miller, “Why Denim?”, in Consumption and Its Consequences, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Malden, Mass.: Polity Press, →ISBN, page 94:

The defect in question is the flare which frequently arises from the use of compound lenses when there is a very bright object in front, resulting in a ghost-like image of that object being thrown upon the plate. If the image of the object thus duplicated be in focus we designate it a "ghost;" if out of focus we call it "flare."

1874 October 23, “On Certain Defects in Combination Landscape Lenses”, in The British Journal of Photography, volume XXI, number 755, London: Henry Greenwood, […], →OCLC, page 515, column 1:


flare

en-verb

flare (third-person singular simple present flares, present participle flaring, simple past and past participle flared)

flares (present singular third-person)
flaring (participle present)
flared (participle past)
flared (past)

unknown

Origin unknown

Qatar joined the World Bank's Global Gas Flaring Reduction programme in early 2008, indicating its commitment to reducing the process of flaring the gas found with oil deposits.

2008, “Going Green: The Country is Keen to Increase Its Environmental Credentials”, in The Report: Qatar 2008, [s.l.]: Oxford Business Group, →ISBN, marginal note, page 247:

One time I was working with the Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) on fueling their fleet, and I was surprised to see them flaring the methane at their wastewater facility.

2013 April, Blair L. Pollock, “Doing New Things”, in Lyle Estill, editor, Small Stories Big Changes: Agents of Change on the Frontlines of Sustainability, Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, →ISBN, page 147:

(transitive) To cause to burn; in particular, to burn off excess gas.

The blast furnace flared in the night.

Thou rear'st thy stately neck, / And, while I list, thou flarest in men's eyes / A gorgeous queen; […]

1802, Joanna Baillie, “Ethwald: A Tragedy, in Five Acts. Part Second.”, in A Series of Plays: In which It is Attempted to Delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind. […], volume II, London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […], →OCLC, Act V, scene v, page 351:

And when Slaughter and Pillage begin to tire, / High flareth red Fire! / How he roars and hisses and flashes! / His frenzy soon turns / The proud pile to a mass of grey ashes, […]

1846 June, “Anthologia Germanica, No. XXII. Uhland’s Ballads.”, in The Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume XXVII, number CLXII, Dublin: James McGlashan, […]; London: W[illiam] S[omerville] Orr and Company, →OCLC, page 678:

This phrase was "Flare up!" and it is, even now, a colloquialism in common use. It took its rise in the time of the Reform riots, when Bristol was nearly half burned by the infuriated populace. The flames were said to have flared up in the devoted city.

1850, Charles Mackay, “Popular Follies in Great Cities”, in Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lindsay and Blackiston, →OCLC, page 218:

Now spent night her watchers spareth, / Now the sun's bright banner flareth, / Now morn's gale day's trump is blowing.

1860, R[obert] W[ilson] Evans, “XV. Christian Battle.”, in Daily Hymns, London: Joseph Masters, […], →OCLC, page 38:

On he went a few paces and touched a second, then a third, and a fourth, till at last we were surrounded on all three sides by a great ring of bodies flaring furiously, the material with which they were preserved having rendered them so inflammable that the flames would literally spout out of the ears and mouth in tongues of fire a foot or more in length.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

The candle flared in a sudden draught.

The substance to which all common flames owe their brightness is finely-divided charcoal. […] Of this formation of charcoal the proof is obvious whenever a candle flares and smokes; for the unburnt charcoal soon collects in the upper part of the flame, and if not removed is apt to fall into the cup of the candle, where it forms a kind of second wick, rapidly melting away the tallow, and disfiguring the candle, […]

1850 March 9, “The Candle”, in The Working Man’s Friend, and Family Instructor, volume I, number 10, London: Printed and published by John Cassell, […], →OCLC, page 302, column 2:

(intransitive) To shine out with a sudden and unsteady light; to emit a dazzling or painfully bright light.

lepattaa

to shine out with a sudden and unsteady light


groove

From Middle English grov, grove, groof, grofe (“cave; pit; mining shaft”), from Old English grōf (“trench, furrow, something dug”), from Proto-West Germanic *grōbu, from Proto-Germanic *grōbō (“groove, furrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scrape, bury”). Cognate with Dutch groef, groeve (“groove; pit, grave”), German Grube (“ditch, pit”), Norwegian grov (“brook, riverbed”), Serbo-Croatian grèbati (“scratch, dig”). Directly descended from Old English grafan (“to dig”). More at grave.

der

Now, what you hear is not a test, I'm rapping to the beat / And me, the groove, and my friends are gonna try to move your feet

1979, “Rapper's Delight”, performed by The Sugarhill Gang:

Let the music play / He won't get away / This groove he can't ignore

1983, Chris Barbosa, Ed Chisolm (lyrics and music), “Let the Music Play”, performed by Shannon:

Get into the groove / Boy, you've got to prove / Your love to me / Get up on your feet / Yeah, step to the beat

1985, Stephen Bray, Madonna (lyrics and music), “Into the Groove”, in Like a Virgin, performed by Madonna:

How could he be expected to make music that put the audience in a groove, he reasoned, if he wasn't grooving himself?

2010, Jan Reid, Shawn Sahm, Texas Tornado: The Times and Music of Doug Sahm, page 57:

(dated, informal) A good feeling (often as in the groove).


reseda

From French réséda, from Latin resēda, said by Pliny the Elder (23–79 C.E.) to be from resēdāre (“to soothe”), from re- (“again”) + sēdāre (“to assuage, calm”)), an allusion to the healing properties of the plant.

About the middle of this month, if the ſeaſon proves favourable, you may plant out your hardy annuals, ſuch as Marvel of Peru, Sweet Sultan, China After or Starwort, Sweet Reſeda called Mignonette d'Egypt, French and African Marigolds, Female Balſamine, Capſicum, Brown Jolly, and ſeveral other ſorts, which, if artfully diſpoſed, will afford an agreeable pleaſure, after the beauty of ſpring is paſt; […]

1757, Philip Miller, “May”, in The Gardeners Kalendar; Directing what Works are Necessary to be Done Every Month in the Kitchen, Fruit, and Pleasure-Gardens, as also in the Conservatory and Nursery. With Accounts I. Of the Particular Seasons for the Propagation of All Sorts of Esculent Plants and Fruits, with the Seasons wherein Each Sort is Proper for the Table. II. Of All Sorts of Trees, Plants, and Flowers, with the Time of Their Flowering in Each Month, 11th edition, London: Printed by Charles Rivington, for John Rivington, at the Bible and Crown, in St. Paul's Church-Yard; and James Rivington and James Fletcher, at the Oxford-Theatre, in Pater-noster Row, →OCLC, page 146:

Reseda or mignonette is grown in the Grasse region [of France]. The tendency for green notes in recent years has given fresh interest to the reseda note. Absolute oil of reseda has an odour recalling that of violet leaves, but with a rather fine 'powdery' background and a suggestion of rose and a little basil.

[2003], H. Panda, “Raw Materials: Products of Natural Origin”, in The Complete Technology Book on Herbal Perfumes & Cosmetics, New Delhi: Ajay Kr. Gupta, National Institute of Industrial Research, →ISBN, page 92:

Reseda odorata
Reseda odorata#Translingual

(botany, horticulture, specifically) Mignonette (Reseda odorata).


temper

en-verb

temper (third-person singular simple present tempers, present participle tempering, simple past and past participle tempered)

tempers (present singular third-person)
tempering (participle present)
tempered (participle past)
tempered (past)

From Middle English temperen, tempren, from Old English ġetemprian, temprian, borrowed from Latin temperō (“I divide or proportion duly, I moderate, I regulate; intransitive senses I am moderate, I am temperate”), from tempus (“time, fit season”). Compare also French tempérer. Doublet of tamper. See temporal.

der

(music) To adjust, as the mathematical scale to the actual scale, or to that in actual use.


lurid

en-adj

lurid (comparative more lurid, superlative most lurid)

more lurid (comparative)
most lurid (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin lūridus (“pale yellow, wan”).

Fierce o'er their beauty blazed the lurid flame;

Wrapt in drifts of lurid smoke / On the misty river-tide.

1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 86:

The great banths sniffed the unfamiliar odours, and then with a rush they broke past us with low growls, swarming across the gardens beneath the lurid light of the nearer moon.

1913 January–May, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Gods of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “Corridors of Peril”, in The Gods of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1918 September, →OCLC, page 85:


eggshell

From Middle English eggeshell, ege schelle, egg-shel, egg shelle (also as Middle English eye schell, ey-schel, ey-schelle), partially continuing Old English ǣġsċill, ǣġsċyll (“eggshell”), equivalent to egg + shell. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Oaierskil (“eggshell”), Dutch eierschaal (“eggshell”), German Eierschale (“eggshell”), Danish æggeskal (“eggshell”), Swedish äggskal (“eggshell”).

cog

eggshell:

A pale off-white colour, like that of the eggshell.


celadon

en-noun

celadon (usually uncountable, plural celadons)

Washington D.C. (canonical)
celadons (plural)

Borrowed from the French céladon from the character named Céladon, who wore pale green ribbons, in the novel L'Astrée by Honoré d'Urfé, from Latin Celadon, a warrior's name in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

celadon:

A pale green colour, possibly tinted with gray.

from the Ming Dynasty. Smithsonian Institution


celadon

en-adj

celadon (comparative more celadon, superlative most celadon)

more celadon (comparative)
most celadon (superlative)

[H]e stroked a soft blue cat with celadon eyes which had appeared from nowhere and now made itself comfortable in his lap […].

1941, Vladimir Nabokov, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Penguin 1971 edition, page 40:

Of a pale green colour tinted with gray.


jota

A traditional popular dance of the Iberian peninsula with regional variations.


topaz

en-noun

topaz (usually uncountable, plural topazes)

→ Irish: tópás

→ Welsh: topas

From Old French topace (compare French topaze), from Ancient Greek τόπαζος (tópazos).

Elgin. Topaz a Saltier and Chief Ruby, on a Canton Pearl a Lyon Rampant Saphyr, which last is their paternal Coat; and the Field Topaz, and Saltier, and Chief Ruby, was the Arms of King Robert the Bruce, they altering the Field from Pearl (as he bore it) to Topaz. / Eglington. Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Saphyr three Flower-de-Liss Topaz, for Montgomery; 2d and 3d, Ruby three Anulets Topaz', ston'd Saphyr, for the Title of Eglington; […]

1720, Francis Nichols, Rudiments of Honour, page 296:

The Field is Ruby, on a Bend Topaz, three Martlets Diamond. […] 4. Pearl, on a Bend Diamond, nine Annulets conjoined in three Links Topaz.

1726, John Guillim, The Banner Display'd; Or, an Abridgment of Guillim, page 504:

(1) Pearl, a Cross, Ruby, with the Effigies of our Saviour thereon, Topaz, born in Memory of one of the Family's fighting against the Turks. (2) Topaz, a Chief Indented, Saphire. (3) Ruby, three covered Cups, Topaz […]

1754, John Lodge, The Peerage of Ireland; Or, a Genealogical History of the ..., page 71:

(heraldry) Or (gold or yellow), in blazoning by precious stones.

A ruby-topaz hummingbird, Chrysolampis mosquitus, the male of which has bright ruby feathers on the head and topaz on the throat


New Age music

New age music is a general term for a wide and eclectic range of music styles blended together under one label to form a new crossover style of music. It is also closely linked with a lifestyle that is broadly called new age, which centers on […]

2019, Janet Sturman, The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture, SAGE Publications, →ISBN:

(music) A genre of music of a mystical and meditative nature, associated with New Age philosophies, usually in the style of world music and using the sounds of nature.


claret

en-verb

claret (third-person singular simple present clarets, present participle clareting, simple past and past participle clareted)

clarets (present singular third-person)
clareting (participle present)
clareted (participle past)
clareted (past)

From Middle English claret, from Middle French claret, from Medieval Latin clārātum vīnum, from clārus.
Compare tent (“Spanish red wine”), also from color

We clareted and champagned till two—then supped, and finished with a kind of regency punch composed of madeira, brandy, and green tea, no real water being admitted therein. There was a night for you!

By night, again, we miss the bright cafe, the brilliantly illuminated offices, and the fringe of guests smoking and clareting […]

1869, Andrew Wynter, Subtle Brains and Lissom Fingers:

(intransitive, archaic) To drink claret.


eggplant

en-noun

eggplant (countable and uncountable, plural eggplants)

From egg + plant, originally applied only to the white-colored, egg-shaped variety.

Solanum melongena
Solanum melongena#Translingual

(Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines) The plant Solanum melongena.


hot pink

en-adj

hot pink (comparative more hot pink, superlative most hot pink)

more hot pink (comparative)
most hot pink (superlative)


grizzle

From Middle English grisel, gryselle, from Old French grisel, from gris (“grey”), from Frankish *grīs, from Proto-Germanic *grīsaz.


grizzle

en-verb

grizzle (third-person singular simple present grizzles, present participle grizzling, simple past and past participle grizzled)

grizzles (present singular third-person)
grizzling (participle present)
grizzled (participle past)
grizzled (past)

[Wilfred:] In tears, eh? What a plague art thou grizzling for now?

1888, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Yeomen of the Guard […] , London: Chappel & Co., […], published c. 1911:

R. J. Tizard — What are you grizzling about now?

1976, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, page 4850:

The pin-thin girl is grizzling, whining that she has sand in her eyes.

2009, Judy Waite, Game Girls, unnumbered page:

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To whinge or whine.

New mothers frequently complain that their partner won't get up to change a wet nappy or comfort a grizzling baby.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To fuss or cry


lovat

en-noun

lovat (countable and uncountable, plural lovats)

lovat:


Caca

(Roman mythology) goddess of the hearth.


lemon chiffon

lemon chiffon:

A very light yellow, like that of lemon chiffon pie.


lemon chiffon

Of a very light yellow, like that of lemon chiffon pie.


coal tar

coal tar (countable and uncountable, plural coal tars)

Coordinate term: coal oil

Phenol can be obtained from coal tars by two methods : (a) Directly by separation of the product contained in this type of feedstock, at the rate of 0.5 to 1.5 per cent weight.

1989, Alain Chauvel, Gilles Lefebvre, Petrochemical Processes: Major Oxygenated, Chlorinated And Nitrated Derivatives, page 123:

A black, viscous tar made by the destructive distillation of coal (to make coke and town gas); it contains a great number of compounds including hydrocarbons and phenols; used in the preparation of medicinal soap and shampoo, and industrially for the manufacture of many products.


town gas

Any of several flammable gases sold and distributed by a municipal gasworks for lighting and heating in a town, including coal gas or water gas.


suling

Borrowed from Sundanese ᮞᮥᮜᮤᮀ (suling). Compare with Acehnese suléng and Malay seruling.

She attributes the initial idea to her husband, who suggested combining the kecapi with suling in 1960, shortly after their move to the kabupaten Sidenreng-Rappang (Sidrap), where he had been assigned as district head (Ind. bupati).

2002, R. Anderson Sutton, Calling Back the Spirit: Music, Dance, and Cultural Politics in Lowland South Sulawesi, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 55:

(music) An Indonesian flute made of bamboo.


mint cream

mint cream (countable and uncountable, plural mint creams)

mint cream:

A very faint green colour, like that of crème de menthe.

A chocolate filled with peppermint fondant.


mint cream

Of a very faint green colour, like that of crème de menthe.


articulation

articulation (countable and uncountable, plural articulations)

From Middle English articulacioun, from Old French articulacion, from Medieval Latin articulatio. Equivalent to articulate + -ion.

The articulation in this piece is tricky because it alternates between legato and staccato.

(music, uncountable) The manner in which something is articulated (tongued, slurred or bowed).


citrine

citrine (countable and uncountable, plural citrines)

From Middle English citrine, partly from Middle French citrine and partly from Latin citrīnus.

citrine:

[…] the urine becometh citrine, or of a deep yellowe color […]

1598, Francis Thynne, Animadversions […] :

dorrẹ̅, dōrī adj. & n. […] Golden or reddish-yellow […] (a. 1398) *Trev. Barth. 59b/a: ʒelouʒ colour [of urine] […] tokeneþ febleness of hete […] dorrey & citrine & liʒt red tokeneþ mene.

c. 1398, quoted in Hans Kurath & Sherman M. Kuhn, eds., Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-01044-8, 1962, page 1242

A goldish-yellow colour, like that of a lemon.


citrine

The coin […] bore what I at first thought was a woman's face—a woman crowned, neither young nor old, but silent and perfect in the citrine metal.

1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter III, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 31:


misty rose

Of very faint pink colour, like that of a rose veiled in mist.


kecapi

From Indonesian kecapi, from Sundanese ᮊᮎᮕᮤ (kacapi, “zither”), probably from Sanskrit कच्छपी (kacchapī, “lute”).

These stories have been handed down from generation to generation in the form of ballads, performed with accompanying music by the "kecapi," a kind of zither.


Navajo white

Navajo white (countable and uncountable, plural Navajo whites)

Navajo white:

Navajo white (color corresponding to RGB code FFDEAD)


partition

partition (countable and uncountable, plural partitions)

/pɑɹˈtɪ.ʃən/

/pɑɹˈtɪ.ʃɪn/

Recorded c.1430, "division into shares, distinction," from Middle English particioun, from Old French particion (modern partition), from Latin partitio, partitionem (“division, portion”), from partitus, the past participle of partire (“to split (up), part(ition)”).


New Age

en-adj

New Age (comparative more New Age, superlative most New Age)

more New Age (comparative)
most New Age (superlative)

(music) Of or relating to New Age music.


selenography

(astronomy, geography, cartography) The scientific study of the Moon's geographic features; geography of the Moon.


moss green

dark moss green:

A dark green colour with a tint of yellow, like that of moss.

pale moss green:

A pale greyish green color, like that of lichen.


moss green

Of a dark green colour with a tint of yellow, like that of moss.

Of a pale greyish green color, like that of lichen.


goldenrod

en-noun

goldenrod (countable and uncountable, plural goldenrods)

/ˈɡoʊldənˌɹɑd/

Any tall-stemmed plant principally from genus Solidago (also Oligoneuron), usually with clusters of small yellow flowers.

She wore a goldenrod dress with a scooping neckline.

2020, Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half, Dialogue Books, page 160:

goldenrod:

A golden-yellow colour, like that of the goldenrod plant.


goldenrod

en-adj

goldenrod (comparative more goldenrod, superlative most goldenrod)

more goldenrod (comparative)
most goldenrod (superlative)

/ˈɡoʊldənˌɹɑd/

Of a golden-yellow colour, like that of the goldenrod plant.


seleno-

seleno- + -centric → selenocentric


lignite

en-noun

lignite (countable and uncountable, plural lignites)

From French lignite, from Latin lignum (“firewood”) + -ite.

Texas industry is turning to lignite, a kind of poor man's coal, to replace its dwindling allocations of natural gas. The Lone Star State now gets an estimated 12 percent of its electricity from lignite, and that figure is expected to double by 1985.

1978 February 14, “Texas Turning to Its Reserves of Lignite”, in New York Times:

[Robert] Habeck, who has found himself in the extremely uncomfortable position of turning from a long-term campaigner against fossil fuels to a short-term defender of them, said: “Putin’s war of aggression is forcing us to temporarily make greater use of lignite so that we save gas in electricity generation. This is painful but necessary in view of the shortage of gas.”

2023 January 10, Kate Connolly, “Climate activists ‘prepared to risk lives’ to stop German coalmine”, in The Guardian:


pea green

pea green:

A medium green colour, like that of peas.


pea green

The pea-green colour of the South-Western engines, with the curious buff-and-amber of the carriages, was also a novelty, as were the raised top-decks of the older guards' vans.

1939 June, T.R. Perkins, “My Red-Letter Day - II”, in Railway Magazine, page 400:

Of a yellowish green colour, like that of peas.


off-white

off-white (countable and uncountable, plural off-whites)

off-white:

A very pale colour that is almost white.


off-white

Of a very pale colour that is almost white.

възбя́л

of a very pale colour that is almost white


hoar

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

From Middle English hor, hore, from Old English hār (“hoar, hoary, grey, old”), from Proto-West Germanic *hair, from Proto-Germanic *hairaz (“grey”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“grey, dark”). Cognate with German hehr (“noble, sublime”), Herr (“sir, gentleman”), Scottish Gaelic ciar (“dusky”), and Russian се́рый (séryj, “grey”).

der

hoar:

His grants are engrafted on the public law of Europe, covered with the awful hoar of innumerable ages.

1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, 10th edition, London: For J. Owen, and F. and C. Rivington, page 52:


hoar

hoar waters

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 10:

old trees with trunks all hoar

1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: Printed for John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza CI:

Bright fell the moonlight on pillar and court and shattered wall, hiding all their rents and imperfections in its silver garment, and clothing their hoar majesty with the peculiar glory of the night.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

And lo, where rapt in beauty's heavenly dream
Hoar Plato walks his olived Academe.

1751, Thomas Warton, Newmarket, a Satire:

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, (please specify either |part=I or II):

But a hare that is hoar / Is too much for a score / When it hoars ere it be spent.

c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], line 134:

Be Thou with me until Old-age, and even to hoar hairs do Thou carrie me. P. Isa. 46.4.

1648, Lancelot Andrewes, A manual of directions for the sick with many sweet meditations and devotions of the R. Reverend Father in God, Lancelot Andrews, late L. Bishop of Winchester: to which are added praiers for the morning, evening and H. communion, page 202:

The great popularity of the Stuarts—certainly more allied to personal causes than we can at present calculate—is a curious fact. It was not one of those feelings drawn from hoar antiquity, when habit has become religion.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 173:

(archaic) Figuratively, grey-haired with age.


madrigal

/ˈmæd͡ɹɪɡəl/

From Italian madrigale, from Latin mātrīcālis.

(music) A song for a small number of unaccompanied voices; from 13th century Italy.

(music) A polyphonic song for about six voices, from 16th century Italy.


tow-colored

Of a pale yellow colour, like that of flax.


old lace

old lace:

A off-white colour, like that of old lace.


old lace

Of an off-white colour, like that of old lace.


squeak

en-noun

squeak (countable and uncountable, plural squeaks)

squeak The squeak of a guinea pig (canonical)
squeaks (plural)

(countable) A short, high-pitched sound, as of two objects rubbing together, or the sounds made by mice and other small animals.


squeak

en-verb

squeak (third-person singular simple present squeaks, present participle squeaking, simple past and past participle squeaked)

squeaks (present singular third-person)
squeaking (participle present)
squeaked (participle past)
squeaked (past)

But I must warn you that chipboard floors are always likely to squeak. The material is still being used in new-builds, but developers now use adhesive to bed and joint it, rather than screws or nails. I suspect the adhesive will eventually embrittle and crack, resulting in the same squeaking problems as before.

2014 August 17, Jeff Howell, “Home improvements: Repairing and replacing floorboards [print version: Never buy anything from a salesman, 16 August 2014, p. P7]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property):

(intransitive) To emit a short, high-pitched sound.

If he be obstinate, put a civil question to him upon the rack, and he squeaks, I warrant him.

1690, [John] Dryden, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal: […], London: […] Jo. Hindmarsh, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number):

(intransitive, slang) To inform, to squeal.

(transitive) To speak or sound in a high-pitched manner.


sweeten

sweeten (third-person singular simple present sweetens, present participle sweetening, simple past and past participle sweetened)

sweetens (present singular third-person)
sweetening (participle present)
sweetened (participle past)
sweetened (past)

sour

antonym(s) of “to make warm and fertile”

From sweet + -en. Eclipsed and superseded non-native Middle English doucen and endoucen, borrowed from Old French adoucir and endoucir (“to sweeten”).

In most popular music the bowed strings usually play long, sustained, sweeping parts, and are sometimes added to a vocal track later in a process known as sweetening.

2011, Russell Dean Vines, Composing Digital Music For Dummies, page 326:

Rather than employ strings to “sweeten” the songs, Motown's arrangements used strings as a timbral layer, in conjunction with syncopated horn lines, for a fuller sound; […]

2014, Mellonee V. Burnim, Portia K. Maultsby, African American Music: An Introduction, page 259:

(music, transitive) To supplement (a composition) with additional instruments, especially strings.


rifle green

en-noun

rifle green (countable and uncountable, plural rifle greens)

rifle green:

A dark green colour, like that of the British Army rifleman uniform.


rifle green

Of a dark green colour, like that of the British Army rifleman uniform.


saddle brown

saddle brown:

A medium brown colour, like that of a saddle.


saddle brown

Of a medium brown colour, like that of a saddle.


honky-tonk

honky-tonk (countable and uncountable, plural honky-tonks)

From honk-a-tonk (“a cheap nightclub”), possibly imitative.

(music, uncountable) A style of country music emphasizing traditional country instruments (e.g., guitar, steel guitar and fiddle); a rough, nasal vocal style; and tragic themes such as heartbreak, infidelity and alcoholism often associated with patrons of honky-tonks.


spring green

spring green (countable and uncountable, plural spring greens)

spring green:

The chip smells like nothing, but tastes like a smörgåsbord that’s both confusing and arousing, like Steve Buscemi. Flecks of spring green – the kind generated from radioactive waste – coat the unwieldy triangles. The seasoning is a kaleidoscope of Day-Glo dust particles that perishes under saliva and tongue.

2022 April 20, Mariella Rudi, “Tostitos Hint of Lime has zero lime – but it’s still the perfect chip”, in The Guardian:

A fresh green colour that reminds one of spring.


spring green

Of a fresh green colour that reminds one of spring.


pearl grey

pearl grey:

A pale grey colour, tinted with blue, like that of some pearls.


pearl grey

Of a pale grey colour, tinted with blue, like that of some pearls.


sky blue

en-adj

sky blue (comparative more sky blue, superlative most sky blue)

more sky blue (comparative)
most sky blue (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sky blue.wav

“Hi! Kostandi!” called out an old sailor in a sky-blue cloak. “How are things with you?”

1952, Nikos Kazantzakis, chapter 1, in Carl Wildman, transl., Zorba the Greek, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, translation of Βίος και πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά [Víos kai politeía tou Aléxi Zormpá], →ISBN, page 3:

Of a vibrant light blue colour, like that of the sky on a fine day.


sage green

sage green:

A greyish green colour, like that of sage.


sage green

Of a greyish green colour, like that of sage.

сивозелен

of a greyish green colour, like that of sage


slate gray

en-noun

slate gray (countable and uncountable, plural slate grays)

slate gray:

savenharmaa

dark bluish-grey colour — see also slate, slate blue, blue-gray


slate gray

schiefergrau

of a dark bluish-grey colour — see also of a dark bluish-grey colour


pearly

pearly (countable and uncountable, plural pearlies)

pearly:

In nature we as often find the light cool as warm; also in the pictures of many of the Flemish and Dutch schools, where, as Sir Joshua himself mentions, " the silver gray or pearly is predominant, and are valued by the connoisseurs in proportion as they possess this excellence of a silver tint."

1830, John Burnet, A practical treatise on painting, page 3:

Pearly is that silky and often coloured lustre which renders of such value

When (the scales are) more developed and thickened, the color (pearly) is deepened, shading

1899, St. Louis medical and surgical journal, page 126:

(uncountable, uncommon, dated) A pale greyish white colour, tinted with blue.

(countable, British, slang, especially in plural) A tooth.


pearly

en-adj

pearly (comparative pearlier, superlative pearliest)

pearlier (comparative)
pearliest (superlative)

Of a pale greyish white colour, tinted with blue.


violet red

Of a deep purplish pink colour, like that of some violets.


silver-grey

silver-grey:


royal purple

en-noun

royal purple (countable and uncountable, plural royal purples)

royal purple:


royal purple

Of a deep vibrant reddish purple colour.


dosimeter

Dosimeters normally take the form of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), photographic film, thermoluminescent devices (TLD) or electronic personal dosimeters (PDM).

A device used to measure a dose of ionizing radiation.


malachite

en-adj

malachite (comparative more malachite, superlative most malachite)

more malachite (comparative)
most malachite (superlative)

From Middle French malachite, from Latin molochītis, from Ancient Greek μολόχη (molókhē, “[leaf of the ... ] mallow plant”).

der

Of a colour ranging from olive-taupe to a mild to deeply-rich (at times seemingly translucent) green, like that of the mineral which is present on oxidized copper.


amaranthine

en-noun

amaranthine (countable and uncountable, plural amaranthines)

/ˌæm.əˈɹæn.θɪn/

1660s, coined by Milton, originally in sense "unfading", as amaranth + -ine, from Ancient Greek ἀμάραντος (amárantos, “unfading”). Later used for color.

uder

Ah! when the eternal morning dawns,
And amaranthines shall displace the thorns […]

1857, Eleanor Duckworth, Milly Wentworth, Poems and Sketches, page 65:


honeydew

en-noun

honeydew (countable and uncountable, plural honeydews)

The noun is derived from honey + dew, originally believed to be a form of dew that fell from the sky like rain onto plants (see sense 1).
The adjective is derived from the noun.

[F]reſh teares / Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honie dew, / Vpon a gathred Lillie almoſt withered.

c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

In India, and eſpecially in the region of the Praſians, it raineth many times a dew like liquid hony falling vppon the hearbs and graſſe of the earth: wherefore the ſhepheards lead their flocks vnto thoſe places, wherwithal their cattle are much delighted, and ſuch as is the food they eat, ſuch alſo is the taſt of the milke they render; […] Such a kind of dew the Hæbrewes call Manna, the Græcians Aeromelos, and Droſomelos: The Germaines Himmelhung: and in Engliſh Honny-dew: […]

1658, Edward Topsel [i.e., Edward Topsell], “Of the Sheepe”, in The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents: […], London: […] E. Cotes, for G. Sawbridge […], T. Williams […], and T. Johnson […], →OCLC, page 603:

Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with holy dread: / For he on honey-dew hath fed, / And drank the milk of Paradise.

1797, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Kubla Khan: Or A Vision in a Dream”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 58:

(uncountable) A sweet liquid substance resembling the substance mentioned in sense 1, such as honey, nectar, or manna in the Bible.

مَنّ

(countable) Short for honeydew melon (“a melon from the Cucumis melo Inodorus cultivar group, with sweet, light green or white flesh and a smooth greenish-white or yellow rind”).

honeydew melon

honeydew:

(uncountable) A light green colour, like the flesh of some honeydew melons.


honeydew

en-adj

honeydew (comparative more honeydew, superlative most honeydew)

more honeydew (comparative)
most honeydew (superlative)

Of a light green colour, like the flesh of some honeydew melons.


potential energy

en-noun

potential energy (countable and uncountable, plural potential energies)

The energy possessed by an object because of its position (in a gravitational or electric field), or its condition (as a stretched or compressed spring, as a chemical reactant, or by having rest mass).


wheaten

en-adj

wheaten (comparative more wheaten, superlative most wheaten)

more wheaten (comparative)
most wheaten (superlative)

From Middle English wheten, from Old English hwǣten (“wheaten”); equivalent to wheat + -en.

Of a pale yellow-beige colour, like that of wheat.


wheaten

wheaten:

A pale yellow or beige colour, like that of wheat.


ionizing radiation

en-noun

ionizing radiation (countable and uncountable, plural ionizing radiations)

(physics) High-energy radiation that is capable of causing ionization in substances through which it passes; also includes high-energy particles.

ioniserende straling

high-energy radiation that is capable of causing ionization in substances


Congo red

Congo red (countable and uncountable, plural Congo reds)

A dye that turns red in alkaline, blue in acidic solutions.


pistachio green

pistachio green (plural pistachio greens)

pistachio green:

A pale yellow-green colour, like that of the pistachio nut.


pistachio green

Of a pale yellow-green colour, like that of the pistachio nut.


platinum blond

platinum blond (countable and uncountable, plural platinum blonds)


titian

Named after Titian (Italian Tiziano), the Italian painter who made frequent use of this colour.

lang

<i class="Latn mention" lang="en">Titian</i>

titian:

A bright auburn colour, tinted with gold.


titian

en-adj

titian (comparative more titian, superlative most titian)

more titian (comparative)
most titian (superlative)

Of a bright auburn colour, tinted with gold, especially in reference to hair.


heather

en-noun

heather (countable and uncountable, plural heathers)

From Middle English hather, hathir, from Old English *hǣddre and hǣþ (“heather”), cognate with Scots hedder, hadder, heddir (“heather”), Saterland Frisian Heede (“heather”), West Frisian heide (“heather”), Dutch heide (“heather”), German Low German Heide, Heid (“heather”), German Heide (“heather”).

The cutting sides were gay with heather in bloom, and masses of dainty Scots bluebells, while patches of clear sky overhead were bringing life and colour to the sea.

1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 9:

Calluna vulgaris
Calluna vulgaris#Translingual

An evergreen plant, Calluna vulgaris, with spiky leaves and small purple, pink, or white flowers.

heather:

A purple colour with a tint of pink and blue.


heather

Of a purple colour with a tint of pink and blue.


chrome red

chrome red (countable and uncountable, plural chrome reds)


oxblood

en-adj

oxblood (comparative more oxblood, superlative most oxblood)

more oxblood (comparative)
most oxblood (superlative)

He was tall and lean, with lank fair hair and a square jaw, togged out in tweeds and a checked shirt and scuffed, oxblood brogues.


kilocalorie

A non-SI unit of energy equal to 1,000 calories, used (now rare) in chemistry or physics; equal to 1 calorie as used in nutrition. Symbol kcal.


songwriter

We are now collaborating with a famous songwriter.

(music) A musician who composes songs; especially writing the song's lyrics and/or creating a melody or a tune for the song.

liedjieskrywer

someone who writes the lyrics and usually the music of songs


sunlight

en-noun

sunlight (countable and uncountable, plural sunlights)

From Middle English sonnelight, sunneliht, from Old English sunnan lēoht (“sunlight”), equivalent to sun + light. Cognate with Dutch zonlicht (“sunlight”), German Low German Sünnenlücht (“sunlight”), German Sonnenlicht (“sunlight”).

cog

Sunlight on the skin gives you vitamin D.

The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.

2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

All the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, especially that in the visible spectrum that bathes the Earth.

রোদ

electromagnetic radiation given off by the sun

(figuratively) Brightness, hope; a positive outlook.


one drop

1995: You have different intricate things that you do with your high hat while your bass drum and your snare might be playing the same beat, like the one drop, where the bass drum and the snare drum is playing identically. — drummer Nelson Miller interviewed by Carter Van Pelt in The Roots Is In The Rhythm

(music) A style of drumming, prevalent in reggae and attributed to Winston Grennan, in which the snare and bass play on the same beat.


unproduced

en-adj

unproduced (comparative more unproduced, superlative most unproduced)

more unproduced (comparative)
most unproduced (superlative)

The new album has a very unproduced sound, unlike their earlier efforts.

(music) Recording the music directly, with a minimum of overdubs, effects and other processing.


fizz

en-verb

fizz (third-person singular simple present fizzes, present participle fizzing, simple past and past participle fizzed)

fizzes (present singular third-person)
fizzing (participle present)
fizzed (participle past)
fizzed (past)

onomatopoeic

Onomatopoeia

the fizzing fuse of a bomb

(intransitive) To make a rapid hissing or bubbling sound.


hairpin

→ Japanese: ヘアピン

From hair + pin, 1788 (as hair pin). Adjective sense 1906 in hairpin turn etc.

(music) An elongated horizontal v-shaped sign placed underneath a staff to indicate a crescendo or decrescendo.


overdub

en-verb

overdub (third-person singular simple present overdubs, present participle overdubbing, simple past and past participle overdubbed)

overdubs (present singular third-person)
overdubbing (participle present)
overdubbed (participle past)
overdubbed (past)

From over- + dub (in the sense derived from double).

The rhythm guitar part is live, but the solo was overdubbed.

(sound engineering) To record a part along with an already recorded part or parts.


overdub

The rhythm guitar part is live, but the solo is an overdub.


counterpoint

en-noun

counterpoint (countable and uncountable, plural counterpoints)

Inherited from Middle English [Term?], from Middle French contrepoint, from Medieval Latin contrāpūnctum. Equivalent to counter- + point.

I noticed […] that when a very cheesy synthesized violin sound plays in counterpoint with a real violin, it can quite convincingly seem as if two violins are playing.

2009, Roger T. Dean, The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music:

(music) A melody added to an existing one, especially one added to provide harmony whilst each retains its simultaneous identity; a composition consisting of such contrapuntal melodies.

對位法

(music) a melody added to an existing one


ashy

en-adj

ashy (comparative ashier, superlative ashiest)

ashier (comparative)
ashiest (superlative)

From Middle English asshy, asky, equivalent to ash + -y.

Still is he sullein, still he lowres and frets,
Twixt crimson shame, and anger ashie pale,

1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:

Tell her that sicknesse, with her ashie hand,
Hath swept away the beauty from my cheekes,

1634 (first performance), Thomas Heywood, Loves Maistresse: Or, The Queens Masque. […], London: […] Robert Raworth, for Iohn Crowch; and are to bee sold by Iasper Emery, […], published 1636, →OCLC, Act IIII:

Again the operation; again the narcotic; again some return of colour to the ashy cheeks, and the regular breathing of healthy sleep.

1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 11, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, chapter IX, page 126:

Beyond that black clot the sea lay, pale with last ashy gleam of day.

1968, Ursula K. Le Guin, chapter 7, in A Wizard of Earthsea, page 123:

Resembling ashes (especially in colour); (of a person’s complexion) unusually pale as a result of strong emotion, illness, etc.

Ye heauenly spirites, whose ashie cinders lie
Vnder deep ruines, with huge walls opprest,

1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Ruines of Rome”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:

[…] where yet the Embers glow,
Wide o’er the Pyle the sable Wine they throw,
And deep subsides the ashy Heap below.

1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book 23”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 75:

[…] I saw her sitting on the hearth in a ragged chair, close before, and lost in the contemplation of, the ashy fire.

1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter X, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 151:

He lit the paper until it burned to an ashy film.

1991, Edwidge Danticat, “A Wall of Fire Rising”, in Krik? Krak!, New York: Soho Press:

Comprising, containing, or covered with ash.


blare

en-verb

blare (third-person singular simple present blares, present participle blaring, simple past and past participle blared)

blares (present singular third-person)
blaring (participle present)
blared (participle past)
blared (past)

The verb is derived from Late Middle English blaren, bleren, bloren (“to bellow, cry, wail; of a goat: to bleat”), probably from Old English *blǣren, from Middle Dutch blaren, bleren (“to bawl, cry; to shout; to bleat”) (modern Dutch blèren), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to bleat, cry”) and ultimately imitative.
The noun is derived from the verb.
cognates
* Low German blaeren, blaren, blarren
* Middle High German blêren, blerren (modern German plärren)

der

In 2000, a robber held up a bank in San Diego, USA. It seems everyone held their noses rather than sticking their hands up because the man was so smelly! […] Police helicopters blared loudspeaker warnings about the smelly man.

2014, Nick Arnold, “Body Breakdowns and Recovery”, in Horrible Science: Body Owner’s Handbook, revised edition, London: Scholastic Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 159:

Often followed by out: of a device such as a loudspeaker or a radio: to produce (music, a sound, etc.) loudly and piercingly.

řvát

The trumpet blaring in my ears gave me a headache.

[O]n plains, and under City-walls, innumerable regimental bands blare-off into the Inane, without note from us.

1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Mankind”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book I (The Feast of Pikes), page 49:

Blazon your mottos of blessing and prayer! / Welcome her, welcome her, all that is ours! / Warble, O bugle, and trumpet, blare! / Flags, flutter out upon turrets and towers!

1863 (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “A Welcome to Alexandra. March 7, 1863.”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], published 1864, →OCLC, page 164:

France, even after 30 years of extraordinary synth, electro and urban pop, is still beaten with a stick marked "Johnny Hallyday" by otherwise sensible journalists. Songs that have taken Europe by storm, from the gloriously bleak Belgian disco of Stromae's Alors on Danse to Sexion d'Assaut's soulful Desole blare from cars everywhere between Lisbon and Lublin but run aground as soon as they hit Dover.

2011 December 14, Andrew Khan, “Music Blog: How Isolationist is British Pop?”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2013-05-23:

To make a loud sound, especially like a trumpet.

тръбя

to make a loud sound, especially like a trumpet

And the kyne wente ſtraight waye vnto Beth Semes vpon one ſtreete, and wente on blearynge, and turned nether to the righte hande ner to the lefte.

1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, I. Kynges [1 Samuel] vj:[12], folio xxviij, recto, column 2:

The worthies alſo of Moab bleared and cried for very ſorow of their myndes: Wo is my hert for Moabs ſake.

1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Esay [Isaiah] xv:[4–5], folio vi, verso, column 2:

Behold, at eve, the herd returning home / From fruitful meads vvhere they have grazed their fill, / No longer in the ſtalls contain'd, they ruſh / VVith many a friſk abroad, and, blaring oft, / VVith one conſent all dance their dams around, […]

1791, Homer, “[The Odyssey.] Book X.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 236, lines 496–500:

(archaic except British, dialectal) To make a lengthy sound, as of a person crying or an animal bellowing or roaring.

karjua

to make a lengthy sound, as of a person crying or an animal bellowing or roaring


blare

en-noun

blare (countable and uncountable, plural blares)

I can hardly hear you over the blare of the radio.

[T]heir host of eagles flew / Past the Pyrenean pines, / Follow'd up in valley and glen / With blare of bugle, clamour of men, / Roll of cannon and clash of arms, / And England pouring on her foes.

1852, Alfred Tennyson, “Stanza VI”, in Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 10:

They danced on silently, softly. Their feet played tricks to the beat of the tireless measure, that exquisitely asinine blare which is England's punishment for having lost America.

1922 October, Michael Arlen, “Book the Second: The Friends. Chapter II.”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, London, Glasgow: W[illiam] Collins Sons & Co., […], published August 1924, →OCLC, section 1, page 84:

The blare of the music and the restlessness of the chorus afflicted his nerves.

1924 May 24 – July 12, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Judson Finds an Old Friend”, in Bill the Conqueror: His Invasion of England in the Springtime, 10th edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1931, →OCLC, page 242:

The screeching of brakes, the monotonous blare of motor horns, the clip-clip of shoes on slippery pavements, the rustling of wet mackintoshes were all part of the great metropolis.

1936, F[rederick] J[oseph] Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney, N.S.W.: H. John Edwards Publishing, published 1940, →OCLC, page 214:

The herds [of bison], in their flight from the burning pastures had rushed over the bed of the watercourse—scaled the slopes of the banks. […] One cry alone more wild than their own savage blare pierced the reek through which the Brute Hurricane swept.

1861 September 28 – 1862 March 8, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XLVII, in A Strange Story. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., […], published 1862, →OCLC, pages 369–370:

(obsolete except British, dialectal) A lengthy sound, as of a person crying or an animal bellowing or roaring.


Amati

a violin made by a member of the Amati family.


dux

Borrowed from Latin dux (“leader”). Doublet of doge, duc, and duke.

(music) The subject of a fugue, answered by the comes.


purpure

From Middle English purpure, from Old English purpure and Old French purpure (“purple”); both from Latin purpura. Doublet of purple and purpura.

Many authorities reject the authenticity of purpure as a tincture.

purpure:

(heraldry) A purple colour on a coat of arms, represented in engraving by diagonal parallel lines 45 degrees clockwise.


purpure

(heraldry) In blazon, of the colour purple.


snuffle

Probably from Low German and Dutch snuffelen (“to snuffle”), equivalent to snuff + -le.


pewter

pewter (countable and uncountable, plural pewters)

→ Welsh: piwter

From Middle English peutre, from Old French peautre, from Vulgar Latin *peltrum (“pewter”), which is of uncertain origin. Possibly related to spelter.


reggae

From Jamaican Creole rege (“rags; a quarrel”), see rag; originally used in the 1960s to describe a Jamaican dance. Compare ragtime. Broader musical sense popularized by the 1968 song "Do the Reggay".

der

I mean, the very name reggae. I mean, it wasn’t called reggae in the first place. It came from blue beat, just ska, you know? Ska and blue beat, the era, and then reggae. Because it was a dance, originally. And the DJs thought, “That’s a nice name,” and the kept saying “reggae music, reggae music” on the air all the time. “Reggae music, reggae music, the DJs on the radio. So everyone kept on saying “Reggae music”. They classed it as …(other Matumbi band members join in) Reggae.

1978, 05:35 from the start, in Wolfgang Büld, director, Reggae In a Babylon (film (documentary)), spoken by Dennis Bovell (as himself, a member of the band Matumbi):

(Rastafari, music) A music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s and is heavily associated with Rastafarianism, featuring a heavy bass line and percussive rhythm guitar on the offbeat, often with close vocal harmonies.


Ba

(music, Japan) Abbreviation of bass guitar (of a rock band)


seashell

The seashells on the beach are toxic and best avoided.

seashell:

A very light pink colour, like that of some seashells.


seashell

Of a very light pink colour, like that of some seashells.


bis

Learned borrowing from Latin bis (“twice”).

lbor

(music) Twice; showing that something is, or is to be, repeated, such as a passage of music, or an item in accounts.


Beatles

Originally spelled Beatals, punningly referencing the expression beat all (“surpass everything”), then later altered to Beatles, blend of beat + beetles, with beat referring to "beat music" or the "beat" of a drum, and beetles inspired by the contemporaneous band name The Crickets.

Don't tell me to play goddamn Beatles in my house. We're in America, I swear to God.

2023, Priscilla Presley, Sandra Harmon, Sofia Coppola, Priscilla, spoken by Elvis (Jacob Elordi):

An extremely successful and influential British rock music quartet that operated primarily in the 1960s.


sorrel

en-noun

sorrel (countable and uncountable, plural sorrels)

From Middle English sorel, from Old French sorel, surele (“sorrel”), from Old French sur (“sour”), of Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sūraz (“sour”); equivalent to sour + -el (diminutive suffix). Compare Old English sūre (“sorrel”), Icelandic súra (“sorrel”), Dutch zuring (“dock (plant), sorrel”). More at sour.

Rumex acetosa
Rumex acetosa#Translingual

Any of various plants with acidic leaves of the genus Rumex, especially

Rumex acetosa (common sorrel, garden sorrel), sometimes used as a salad vegetable.

Members of genus Oxalis or family Oxalidaceae, woodsorrels.

Now, many people drink alcohol, but when I was a child I remember drinking sorrel, ginger beer and drinks made from fresh fruits such as soursop and passion-fruit. Sorrel was prepared over a long period, not as quickly as it is now.

2007, African and Caribbean Celebrations, →ISBN, page 56:

For instance, one day we were sitting on the porch, looking down at the lagoon and the yachts from all over the world. He was drinking ginger beer mixed with rum, and I was drinking sorrel. No rum. Out of nowhere, he proposed.

2009, C. C. Alick, Dancing with the Yumawalli: Inspired by True Events, page 62:

Joy and the parents did not go either; we spent a quiet day at home, eating roast chicken and stuffing with our own green-gungu rice and peas, and drinking sorrel.

2012, Claudette Beckford-Brady, Sweet Home, Jamaica, page 390:

Hibiscus sabdariffa
Hibiscus sabdariffa#Translingual

A drink, consumed especially in the Caribbean around Christmas, made from the flowers of Hibiscus sabdariffa: hibiscus tea.


sorrel

From Middle English *sorel, from Middle French *sorel, sorrel, surrel, from Middle French sor (“yellowish-brown, reddish-brown”), probably from Old Frankish *saur (“dried”), from Proto-Germanic *sauzaz (“dry”), from Proto-Indo-European *saus- (“dry, parched”); equivalent to sore (“reddish-brown”) + -el (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch soor (“dry”), Old High German sōrēn (“to become dry”), and Old English sēar (“withered, barren”). See also sere.

suffix

sorrel:


sorrel

A little harmless gossip ensued on various themes, such as where old Aunt Sally got her new red head-kerchief, and how "Missis was a going to give Lizzy that spotted muslin gown, when she 'd got her new berage made up;" and how Mas'r Shelby was thinking of buying a new sorrel colt, that was going to prove an addition to the glories of the place.

1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter 4, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 50:

Of a brown colour, with a tint of red. (especially: a sorrel horse)


gules

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-gules.wav

From Middle English goules, from Old French geule (“animal’s mouth, throat”) via Middle French geules. Compare with French gueules, Portuguese goelas and Spanish gules.

uder

gules:

(heraldry) Red, e.g. on a coat of arms, typically represented in engraving by vertical parallel lines.


gules

The symbol of the Red Cross is a cross gules.

Now is he total gules, horridly tricked

1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, ii 2:

You know they still
Call themselves Bulls, though thus degenerate,
And everything relating to a Bull
Is popular and respectable in Thebes.
Their arms are seven Bulls in a field gules;
They think their strength consists in eating beef,—

1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:

(heraldry) In blazon, of the colour red.


Chinese red

Of a vivid red colour tinted with orange.


jawbone

en-noun

jawbone (countable and uncountable, plural jawbones)

From Middle English jawe bone, a variant of chawlbone, chawylbon, chavylbone, chavyl bon (“jaw bone”, literally “chavel bone”), see chavel-bone; equivalent to jaw + bone.

(countable, singular or plural, music) A shaken musical instrument (an idiophone) made from the jawbone of an animal and shaken such that the teeth vibrate in their sockets to produce sound.


bow-wow

Lord Pembroke said once to me at Wilton, with a happy pleasantry, and some truth, that “Dr. Johnson’s sayings would not appear so extraordinary were it not for his bow-wow way;” but I admit the truth of this only on some occasions.

1785, James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, London: Charles Dilly, page 8:

1826, Walter Scott, Diary entry for 14 March, 1826, in The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott; with a Biography, New York: Conner & Cooke, 1833, Volume 7, Chapter 68, p. 475,
Miss Austen […] had a talent for describing the involvements, and feelings, and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me.

(dated, informal, of language) Grandiose.


E-flat major

{\key es\major es'f'g'aes'bes'cdes2}

(music) The major key with E-flat as its tonic, with the notes E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D the key signature of which has three flats:

(music) The major chord with a root of E-flat.


Hang

Coined as a trademark, from Alemannic German Hang (“hand”), c. 2000.

Philip plays a Hang drum—a unique instrument that looks a little like two woks welded together.

2009, Steven J. L. Croft, Ian Mobsby, editors, Fresh Expressions in the Sacramental Tradition, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd, →ISBN, page 84:

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

A percussion instrument invented and built by PANArt Hangbau AG, somewhat resembling a steelpan, consisting of two metal half shells with tuned notes on the top side that produces a mellow and ethereal sound.


Indian red

1672 pigment, c. 1810–27 colour and adjective. Indian + red, the pigment originally being an earth obtained from the East Indies.

Having the colour of Indian red pigment.


ISO

(music, derogatory) Abbreviation of instrument-shaped object. Used to refer to a musical instrument that is of very low quality.


Bach

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der.
Proto-Germanic *bakiz
Proto-West Germanic *baki
German Bachbor.
English Bach
From German Bach. The surname was brought to the Anglo-Saxon world by immigrants from other Germanic countries. Doublet of Beach.

etymon

(music) Johann Sebastian Bach, a German organist and composer.


Lincoln green

From Lincoln, England, where the cloth of this colour was originally produced.

Lincoln green:


Lincoln green

en-adj

Lincoln green (comparative more Lincoln green, superlative most Lincoln green)

more Lincoln green (comparative)
most Lincoln green (superlative)