tickle

en-verb

tickle (third-person singular simple present tickles, present participle tickling, simple past and past participle tickled)

tickles (present singular third-person)
tickling (participle present)
tickled (participle past)
tickled (past)

From Middle English tiklen, tikelen, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a frequentative form of Middle English tikken (“to touch lightly”), thus equivalent to tick + -le; or perhaps related to Old English tinclian (“to tickle”). Compare North Frisian tigele (“to tickle”) (Hallig dialect), and tiikle (“to tickle”) (Amrum dialect), German dialectal zicklen (“to excite; stir up”).
Alternatively, from a metathetic alteration of Middle English kitelen ("to tickle"; see kittle).

gloss

"to tickle"; see <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">kittle</i>

kielie

to touch in a manner that causes tingling sensation

He tickled Nancy's tummy, and she started to giggle.

If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

(transitive) To touch repeatedly or stroke delicately in a manner which causes laughter, pleasure and twitching.

A stranger tickled Nancy's tummy, causing her to scream in fear.

(transitive) To unexpectedly touch or stroke delicately in a manner which causes displeasure or withdrawal.

My nose tickles, and I'm going to sneeze!

(intransitive, of a body part) To feel as if the body part in question is being tickled.

(transitive) To appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.

kiinnostaa

to appeal to someone's taste, curiosity etc.


tickle

en-adv

tickle (comparative more tickle, superlative most tickle)

more tickle (comparative)
most tickle (superlative)

Lucio. I warrant it is: And thy head stands so tickle on
thy shoulders, that a milke-maid, if she be in loue, may
sigh it off: Send after the Duke, and appeale to him.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:


grade

→ Japanese: グレード (gurēdo)

→ Swahili: gredi

Borrowed from Middle French grade (“a grade, degree”), from Latin gradus (“a step, pace, degree”), from Proto-Italic *graðus, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰradʰ-, *gʰredʰ- (“to walk, go”). Doublet of gradus.
Cognate with Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌹𐌸𐍃 (griþs, “step, grade”), Bavarian Gritt (“step, stride”), Lithuanian grìdiju (“to go, wander”).

(Philippines, ophthalmology) An eyeglass prescription.


poppy

en-noun

poppy (countable and uncountable, plural poppies)

→ Japanese: ポピー (popī)

Beckwithshaw
In Flanders Fields
John McCrae
Moina Michael

PIE word
 *péh₂wr̥
The noun is derived from Late Middle English poppy, Middle English popy, popi, popie (“plant of the genus Papaver; poppy seeds used as a spice”) [and other forms], from Old English popiġ (“poppy”), Early Old English popeġ, popaeġ, popæġ, popei [and other forms], perhaps from Late Latin *papavum, popauer, from Latin papāver (“poppy”), which may be from a reduplication of Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥ (“bonfire”). Doublet of papaver.
Sense 3 (“artificial poppy flower to remember those who died in the two World Wars and other armed conflicts”) reflects the efforts of American professor and humanitarian Moina Michael (1869–1944) to popularize the wearing of artificial poppies in remembrance of those who fought and died in World War I; she was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields” (1915) by the Canadian poet and soldier John McCrae (1872–1918): see the quotation.
The adjective is derived from the noun.

nb...

pape, papie, papy, papye, popẹ̄, poppei, popye, (Early Middle English) papig, popi, popig

blue poppy

Meconopsis, especially Meconopsis betonicifolia

In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row, / That mark our place; […] / If ye break faith with us who die / We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields.

1915 May 3 (date composed), John McCrae, “In Flanders Fields”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, London: Published at the office, 85, Fleet Street, published 8 December 1915, →OCLC; republished in In Flanders Fields and Other Poems, New York, N.Y., London: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons […], 1919, →OCLC, page 3:

We cherish, too, the poppy red / That grows on fields where valor led; / It seems to signal to the skies / That blood of heroes never dies, / […] / And now the torch and poppy red / We wear in honor of our dead. / Fear not that ye have died for naught; / We've learned the lesson that ye taught / In Flanders fields.

1918 November 9, Moina Michael, We Shall Keep the Faith; quoted in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the First Session of the Sixty-ninth Congress of the United States of America (United States House of Representatives), volume LXVII, part 4, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1926 February 10, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3717, column 2:

Papaver rhoeas
Papaver rhoeas#Translingual

Any plant of the genus Papaver or the family Papaveraceae, with crumpled, often red, petals and a milky juice having narcotic properties; especially a common poppy or corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) which has orange-red flowers; the flower of such a plant.

губгъуэӏущхьэ

gʷubğʷɛʼwuśḥɛ

Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets.

2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England under 21 5 Iceland under 21 0: Match report”, in Tony Gallagher, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2011-11-11:

(chiefly Australia, British, Canada) A simple artificial poppy flower worn in a buttonhole or displayed in other contexts to remember those who died in the two World Wars and other armed conflicts, especially around Remembrance Day/Remembrance Sunday.


poppy

en-adj

poppy (comparative poppier or more poppy, superlative poppiest or most poppy)

poppier (comparative)
more poppy (comparative)
poppiest (superlative)
most poppy (superlative)

From pop (“loud, sharp sound; fizzy drink; to make or burst with a loud, sharp sound; to stand out”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’).


poppy

From pop(ular) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’).


poppy

From pop (“affectionate form of father”) + -y (suffix forming terms of endearment).

suf

(father):

(grandfather):

(endearing) One's father or grandfather, or a male authority figure having similar standing.


brunette

Borrowed from French brunette, the feminine form of brunet, from brun (“brown”). Doublet of burnet.

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

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

The housekeeper, a very decorative brunette of thirty-five with a pseudo-English accent, greeted him with a mixture of grateful effusion and condescending patronage.

1946, William Hatfield, Buffalo Jim, Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege, page 70:

Brownheads or brunettes use a darker red than blondes and redheads.

A person, especially female, with brown hair.

سَمْرَاء

a person, especially female, with brown hair


aroma

From Late Latin arōmata (“spices”) (or arōma (“spice”)), from Ancient Greek ἄρωμα (árōma, “seasoning, spicy and/or fragrant smell”).

der

I love the aroma of cinnamon.

The smell of fresh asphalt hangs heavy in the air at Dore & Totley station. It's even powerful enough to overcome the usual delightful aromas emanating from the well-known curry house which occupies the original platform building.

2024 May 1, Tom Ingall, “Hope springs eternal for better services”, in RAIL, number 1008, page 52:

A smell; especially a pleasant spicy or fragrant one.


aromatic

en-adj

aromatic (comparative more aromatic, superlative most aromatic)

more aromatic (comparative)
most aromatic (superlative)

/ˌæɹ.əˈmæt.ɪk/

/ˌɛɹ.əˈmæt.ɪk/

[ˌɛɹ.əˈmæɾ.ɪk]

/ˌæɹ.əˈmæt.ɪk/

[ˌæɹ.əˈmæɾ.ɪk]

Late Middle English, from Middle French and Old French aromatique, from Late Latin aromaticus, from Ancient Greek ἄρωμα (árōma, “seasoning, spicy and/or fragrant smell”).

aromatic herbs

aromatic taste

Beautifully adorned in tuxedo black with brilliant white stripes or spots, skunks are known mainly for their aromatic properties, but they are also efficient predators of insects and other small game.

2016, Justin O. Schmidt, The Sting of the Wild, Johns Hopkins University Press,, →ISBN, page 35:


crow's feet

Wrinkles at the outer corners of the eye.

potes de gall

wrinkles at the outer corners of the eye


stench

From Middle English stench, from Old English stenċ (“stench, odor, fragrance”), from Proto-Germanic *stankwiz (“smell, fragrance, odor”), from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ- (“to push, thrust”). Cognate with Dutch stank (“stench, odor”), German Stank, Gestank (“stench, odor, smell”), Danish stank (“stench”), Swedish stank (“stench”), Icelandic stækja (“stench”).


tango

From Rioplatense Spanish tango, probably from a Niger-Congo language (compare Ibibio tamgu (“to dance”)).

tango:

A dark orange colour shade; deep tangerine


deafness

en-noun

deafness (countable and uncountable, plural deafnesses)

From Middle English deefnesse; equivalent to deaf + -ness.

Paul wet his lips with his tongue, read: “ ‘Think you of I the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all possess? What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us? What is there around us that we cannot—’ ”

1965, Frank Herbert, Dune (Science Fiction), New York: Ace Books, →OCLC, page 47:

The condition of being deaf; the lack or loss of the ability to hear.


daffodil

daffodil (countable and uncountable, plural daffodils)

Variant of Middle English affodill (“ramson”), from Medieval Latin affodillus, from Latin asphodelus, from Ancient Greek ἀσφόδελος (asphódelos), of Pre-Greek origin. The initial d- is perhaps from merging of the article in Dutch de affodil, the Netherlands being a source for bulbs (compare adder, apron, newt, nickname, orange and umpire for this rebracketing process). Doublet of asphodel.

When daffadils begin to peere, / With heigh the Doxy ouer the dale, / Why then comes in the ſweet o’ the yeere, / For the red blood raigns in yͤ winters pale.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 290, column 1:

I wandered lonely as a Cloud / That floats on high o’er Vales and Hills, / When all at once I saw a crowd / A host of dancing Daffodills; / Along the Lake, beneath the trees, / Ten thousand dancing in the breeze.

1807, William Wordsworth, “[I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud]”, in Poems, in Two Volumes, volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 49:

Was there ever a more beautiful name in the world than daffodil? Say it over to yourself, and then say “agapanthus” or “chrysanthemum,” or anything else you please, and tell me if the daffodils do not have it.

1919 November 20, A[lan] A[lexander] Milne, “Daffodils”, in Not That It Matters, New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Company […], published 1920, →OCLC, page 82:

(countable) A bulbous plant of the genus Narcissus, with yellow flowers and a trumpet shaped corona, especially Narcissus pseudonarcissus, the national flower of Wales.

daffodil:

Where ships of purple gently toss / On seas of daffodil, / Fantastic sailors mingle, / And then—the wharf is still.

a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “Where Ships of purple gently toss”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, Second Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1891, page 11:

A brilliant yellow color, like that of a daffodil.


daffodil

en-adj

daffodil (comparative more daffodil, superlative most daffodil)

more daffodil (comparative)
most daffodil (superlative)

Of a brilliant yellow color, like that of a daffodil.


eminence

en-noun

eminence (countable and uncountable, plural eminences)

obscurity

antonym(s) of “someone of high rank, reputation or social status”

mediocrity

antonym(s) of “the quality or state of being eminent”

From Old French eminence, from Latin ēminēntia (“prominence”, “protuberance”; “eminence”, “excellence”).

uder

title of honor for a Roman Catholic cardinal

For quotations using this term, see Citations:eminence.

eminence:


dichromatic

en-adj

dichromatic (comparative more dichromatic, superlative most dichromatic)

more dichromatic (comparative)
most dichromatic (superlative)

From di- + Ancient Greek χρῶμα (khrôma, “color”) + -ic.

(optics) having two hues, either of which may be visible depending on both the concentration of the absorbing substance and the depth or thickness of the medium traversed, such as in pumpkin seed oil. A form of polychromatism.


geranium

From Latin geranium, from Ancient Greek γερᾰ́νῐον (gerắnĭon), from γέρᾰνος (gérănos, “crane”) + -ῐον (-ĭon, diminutive suffix).

af

The common name for flowering plants of the genus Pelargonium.

geranium:

A bright red color tinted with orange, like that of a scarlet geranium.


geranium

en-adj

geranium (comparative more geranium, superlative most geranium)

more geranium (comparative)
most geranium (superlative)

Of a bright red color tinted with orange, like that of a scarlet geranium.


hairy eyeball

He was giving me the hairy eyeball.

(slang) A look askance at someone; a look of disdain or skepticism.


pansy

From Middle French pensée (“thought”), as the plant resembles someone that is in deep thought, with a lowered head. Doublet of pensée.

The Daughters of the Flood have ſearch'd the Mead / For Violets pale, and cropt the Poppy's Head: / The Short Narciſſus and fair Daffodil, / Pancies to pleaſe the Sight, and Caſſia ſvveet to ſmell: […]

1697, Virgil, “The Second Pastoral. Or, Alexis.”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 6:

Oh, what a perfect thought. Lilies-of-the-valley, and white pansies, double white violets and white velvet ribbon… From an unknown friend. … From one who understands. … For a Little Girl.

1920, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Revelations”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 271:

Viola tricolor
Viola tricolor#Translingual

A cultivated flowering plant, derived by hybridization within species Viola tricolor.


peony

From Old English peonie, peonia et al., from Latin paeōnia; later reinforced by Anglo-Norman peonie, Old French peone, from Latin paeōnia, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek παιωνία (paiōnía), from Ancient Greek Παιών (Paiṓn, “Paeon, the physician of the gods”)/παιών (paiṓn, “a physician”).

der

The root of the Male Peony fresh gathered has been found by experience to cure the falling-sickness.

1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society, published 2007, page 219:

There might ye ſee the pioney ſpread vvide, / The full-blovvn roſe, the ſhepherd and his laſs, / Lap-dog and lambkin vvith black ſtaring eyes, / And parrots vvith tvvin cherries in their beak.

1785, William Cowper, “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 3:

'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

Peony would keep away any kind of storms. Mugwort hung over doorways on Midsummer's Day, June 24, would keep off lightning, as St. John's-Wort would if gathered before sunrise on that day.

1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 258:

Mr. Farzan’s narrow backyard in Brooklyn’s South Slope neighborhood is a lush, if slightly chaotic, oasis. There are Fuji apples, Meyer lemons, figs, peonies and avocados — although that’s far from a complete census of all that grows there.

2023 September 29, Molly Fitzpatrick, “He’s the Pawpaw King of Brooklyn. (What’s a Pawpaw?)”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A flowering plant of the genus Paeonia with large fragrant flowers.


petunia

From New Latin Petunia, from (now obsolete) French pétun (“the tobacco plant”), from Portuguese petum (“tobacco”), from Paraguayan Guaraní pety.

Usually petunias are quite pest free, but aphids are occasional problems.

2002, Larry Hodgson, Annuals for Every Purpose, page 57:

The small purple petunias are produced in profusion and without ceasing during the entire season.

2003, Norman Winter, Tough-As-Nails Flowers for the South, page 39:

Closely related calibrachoas, often called miniature petunias, offer dainty petunia-like blossoms that are perfect for planting in pots.
No matter what type of petunias you choose, they all prefer plenty of sun.

2013, Jan Riggenbach, Your Midwest Garden: An Owner's Manual, page 18:

Any of the flowering plants of genus Petunia, of which most garden varieties are hybrids.

petunia:

A dark purple colour, like that of some petunia flowers.


petunia

Of a dark purple colour, like that of some petunia flowers.


blur

en-verb

blur (third-person singular simple present blurs, present participle blurring, simple past and past participle blurred)

blurs (present singular third-person)
blurring (participle present)
blurred (participle past)
blurred (past)

From earlier blurre, probably an alteration of blear, from Middle English bleren, from Old English *blerian (attested in āblered (“made bare, made bald”)), from Proto-West Germanic *blaʀjan, from Proto-Germanic *blazjaną (“to make pale”), from Proto-Germanic *blasaz (“pale”). Compare Scots blore, bloar (“to blur, cover with blots”), Low German bleeroged (“blear-eyed”). More at blear.

inh

His eyes are blurred with the lightning's glare.

1819, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay:

To cause imperfection of vision in; to dim; to darken.


version

en-noun

version (countable and uncountable, plural versions)

From Middle French version, from Medieval Latin versiō, from Latin vertō (“I turn”). Used in English since 16th century.

(ophthalmology) An eye movement involving both eyes moving synchronously and symmetrically in the same direction.


golden

en-adj

golden (comparative more golden or goldener, superlative most golden or goldenest)

more golden (comparative)
goldener (comparative)
most golden (superlative)
goldenest (superlative)

From Middle English golden, a restored form (due to the noun gold) of earlier Middle English gulden, gylden, gilden ("golden"; > English gilden), from Old English gylden (“golden”), from Proto-West Germanic *gulþīn, from Proto-Germanic *gulþīnaz (“golden, made of gold”), equivalent to gold + -en.
Cognate with Dutch gouden, gulden (“golden”), German gülden, golden (“golden”), Danish gylden (“golden”). Doublet of gilden. More at gold.

gloss

"golden"; > English <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">gilden</i>

der

[ˈɡɒʊ̯ɫ.dn̩]

kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

She wore a golden crown.

And now the concern which Partridge felt at being obliged to quit the warm chimney-corner, and a cup of excellent liquor, was somewhat compensated by hearing that he was to proceed no farther on foot, for Jones, by golden arguments, had prevailed with the boy to attend him back to the inn whither he had before conducted Sophia […]

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:

Under a golden sun.

golden:

Having a color or other richness suggestive of gold.

goue

having a color or other richness suggestive of gold

Many anti-fog variety goggles are available, but if you don't get that type, just rub a little spit on the lenses before you put them on in the water and you'll be golden.

2007, Colin Barr, Steve Katai, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Triathlon Training, Penguin, →ISBN, page 28:

Therefore, the task ahead is easy. When the spotlight is on you, never let the audience down and you'll be golden.

2009, Mark Wiskup, Presentation S.O.S.: From Perspiration to Persuasion in 9 Easy Steps, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

If all of the marks line up perfectly, then you're golden, and you can continue on with finishing up the installation.

2011, Wayne R. Dempsey, 101 Projects for Your Porsche Boxster, Motorbooks, →ISBN, page 68:

(UK, slang, predicative) Fine, without problems.


golden

[ˈɡɒʊ̯ɫ.dn̩]

Kyphosus vaigiensis, a fish found in southeast Asia.

The archives of the Golden Retriever Club of America (GRCA) record goldens in the United States as early as the 1890s.

1995, Jaime J. Sucher, Golden Retrievers, Barron’s, →ISBN, page 76:

Golden retrievers, or goldens, make great family pets.[…]Goldens should be brushed regularly.

2017, Linda Bozzo, I Like Golden Retrievers! (Discover Dogs with the American Canine Association), Enslow Publishing, pages 4 and 15:

Throw a toy into the water, and watch your golden go for it!

2019, Sarah Frank, Golden Retrievers, Lerner Publishing Group, page 6:

People like petting goldens.

2021, Marcie Aboff, Fast Facts About Golden Retrievers (Fast Facts About Dogs), Raintree, Capstone Global Library Limited, →ISBN, page 13:

golden retriever
golden retriever#English


golden

en-verb

golden (third-person singular simple present goldens, present participle goldening, simple past and past participle goldened)

goldens (present singular third-person)
goldening (participle present)
goldened (participle past)
goldened (past)

From gold + -en, or perhaps a derivation from the adjective above.

[ˈɡɒʊ̯ɫ.dn̩]

(intransitive) To become gold or golden (in color).


licorice

en-noun

licorice (usually uncountable, plural licorices)

From Middle English lycorys, from Old French licoresse, from Late Latin liquiritia, alteration of Ancient Greek γλυκύρριζα (glukúrrhiza): γλυκύς (glukús, “sweet”) + ῥίζα (rhíza, “root”) (English glucose, English rhizome). Doublet of glycyrrhiza.

Glycyrrhiza glabra
Glycyrrhiza glabra#Translingual

(countable) A plant of species Glycyrrhiza glabra, or sometimes in North America, the related American licorice plant Glycyrrhiza lepidota.

licorice:

(countable and uncountable) A black color, named after the licorice.

(uncountable) A supposed aphrodisiac made in the past from dried roots of Glycyrrhiza glabra and Glycyrrhiza echinata.


paprika

paprika (countable and uncountable, plural paprikas)

Borrowed from Hungarian paprika, from Serbo-Croatian pàprika, from pȁpar, from Proto-Slavic *pьpьrь, from Latin piper, from Ancient Greek πέπερι (péperi, “pepper”), from Indo-Aryan; compare Sanskrit पिप्पलि (pippali, “long pepper”). Akin to paprikash.

cog

California is taking the lead, producing a paprika that is more standardized and more uniformly available than the European growers offer.

1995, Jean Andrews, Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums, →ISBN, page 73:

Capsicum annuum
Capsicum annuum#Translingual

(uncountable) Powdered spice made from dried and ground fruits of sweet pepper (bell pepper) or chili pepper (cultivars of Capsicum annuum), or mixtures of these (used especially in Hungarian cooking).

Using the trio of paprikas gives more flavour than you'd get using a single paprika.

2011, Heidi Swan, Super Natural Evey Day, →ISBN:

strings of red paprikas hang outside to dry in the autumn

2003, Jonathan Bousfield, Rough Guide to Croatia, →ISBN, page 123:

(countable, rare, commonly called "dried [bell/chilli] peppers" or "dried capsicums") A dried but not yet ground fruit of sweet pepper (bell pepper) or chili pepper sold for use as a spice.

paprika:

A bright reddish orange colour resembling that of the ground spice.


paprika

en-adj

paprika (comparative more paprika, superlative most paprika)

more paprika (comparative)
most paprika (superlative)

Of a bright reddish orange colour, like that of the dried paprika.


tamarind

en-noun

tamarind (countable and uncountable, plural tamarinds)

From Late Middle English thamarynde, from Old French tamarinde, from Medieval Latin tamarindus, from Arabic تَمْر هِنْدِيّ (tamr hindiyy, literally “Indian date”).

der

تَمْر هِنْدِيّ

tamarind:

A dark brown color, like that of tamarind pulp (also called tamarind brown).


pupil

From Middle English pupille, from Old French pupille, from Latin pūpilla (“pupil; little girl, doll”), named because of the small reflected image seen when looking into someone's eye.

There are sharks with round pupils, sharks with slitlike pupils, and some with pupils that expand and contract with the amount of light available. As unimpressive as this might sound to people who are used to having their pupils dilate and contract regularly, realize that no bony fish has this modification of the eye.

1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 29:

(anatomy) The hole in the middle of the iris of the eye, through which light passes to be focused on the retina.

pupil

the hole in the middle of the iris of the eye

das Schwarze im Auge

colloquial; sometimes including the iris


retina

en-noun

retina (plural retinas or retinae or (archaic) retinæ)

retinas (plural)
retinae (plural)
retinæ (archaic plural)

From Middle English rethina, borrowing from Medieval Latin rētīna (“retina”, feminine noun), ellipsis of tunica rētīna (“net-like tunic”), used to describe the blood vessel system at the back of the eye. The phrase is attested in the 12th century in Guillelmus the abbot and Gerard of Cremona—the latter may have created this phrase as a translation for Arabic طَبَقَة شَبَكِيَّة (ṭabaqa šabakiyya) "net-like layer", which translates Ancient Greek ἀμφιβληστροειδής χῐτών (amphiblēstroeidḗs khĭtṓn, “retina”), which is attested in the ancient medical writer Galen.

m+

طَبَقَة شَبَكِيَّة

ἀμφιβληστροειδής χῐτών

(ophthalmology) The thin layer of cells at the back of the eyeball that contains rods and cones sensitive to light, which trigger nerve impulses that pass via the optic nerve to the brain, where a visual image is formed.


greenish

en-adj

greenish (comparative more greenish, superlative most greenish)

more greenish (comparative)
most greenish (superlative)

From Middle English grenyssh, grenysch, equivalent to green + -ish.


copper phthalocyanine

(organic chemistry) A synthetic chemical used as a colorant in paints and dyes. First used in 1929. In pure form it is an intense blue. It is chlorinated to produce very intense dark green, and brominated and chlorinated copper phthalocyanines are mixed to produce a yellower emerald green.


gunmetal

en-noun

gunmetal (countable and uncountable, plural gunmetals)

gunmetal:

Yet even asleep, a Sabre, Jaguar, Harrier, Phantom, Falcon or Eagle holds the eye as a design classic, and that worrisome beauty is still there close up—the cared for, nurtured, spoiled feel, the expensive finish, the quality of the materials, the craftsmanship evident in the flush rivets, the highly polished canopy, the gunmetal sheen of the external instrument sensors, each carefully protected by rubber sheaths with flapping red tags to remind the pilot to take them off before flight.

1999, Ivan Rendall, “Preface”, in Rolling Thunder: Jet Combat from World War II to the Gulf War, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, →ISBN, page ix:

(also attributive) A dark grey or bluish-grey colour; gunmetal grey.


downcast

en-adj

downcast (comparative more downcast, superlative most downcast)

more downcast (comparative)
most downcast (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English doun-casten, *adoun-casten (“(adjective) cast down, dejected; (verb) to break down (something); to overcome (someone); to overturn (something)”), from down (“in a downward direction; (figurative) to destruction”), adoun (“downward”) + casten (“to throw (something), fling, hurl; to overcome (someone), defeat, overpower; [etc.]”) (from Old Norse kasta (“to cast, throw”), from Proto-Germanic *kastōną (“to throw”), from *kas- (“to throw, toss; to bring up”); further etymology uncertain), modelled similarly to other constructions in Middle English such as adoun-throwen (“to throw down”) and adoun-werpen (“to throw down”)). The English word is analysable as down- (prefix meaning ‘lower direction or position’) + cast (“that has been thrown”, adjective).
The noun is derived from the adjective.

prefix

Of a person or thing: defeated, overthrown; also, destroyed, ruined.


biscuit

en-noun

biscuit (countable and uncountable, plural biscuits)

Tok Pisin: bisket

→ Bengali: বিস্কুট (biskuṭ)

→ Burmese: ဘီစကွတ် (bhica.kwat)

→ Cebuano: biskuwít, biskwit

→ Fiji Hindi: biskut

→ Gujarati: બિસ્કિટ (biskiṭ)

→ Hausa: bìskît

desc

ביסקוויט//בִּיסְקְוִיט

→ Hebrew: ביסקוויט /בִּיסְקְוִיט (bískvit)

→ Hiligaynon: biskwit

desctree

→ Hindi: बिस्कुट (biskuṭ)
→ Jarawa: biskuʈ (“biscuit”)

→ Indonesian: beskit, biskit

→ Japanese: ビスケット (bisuketto)

→ Korean: 비스켓 (biseuket)

→ Malay: biskut

→ Marshallese: petkōj

→ Punjabi: ਬਿਸਕੁਟ (biskuṭ)

→⇒ Scottish Gaelic: briosgaid

→ Spanish: bísquet, bísquete

→ Swahili: biskuti

→ Sylheti: ꠛꠤꠍꠇꠥꠐ (bisókuṭ)

→ Tagalog: biskuwit

→ Thai: บิสกิต (bís-gìt)

→ Urdu: بسکٹ (biskiṭ)
→ Ushojo: بسکٹ (biskiṭ)

→ Yoruba: bisikíìtì

→ Zulu: bhisikidi

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From earlier bisket, from Middle English bisquyte, from Old French bescuit (French biscuit); doublet of biscotto.

biscuit:


tactile

en-adj

tactile (comparative more tactile, superlative most tactile)

more tactile (comparative)
most tactile (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French tactile, from Latin tactilis (“that may be touched, tangible”), from tangere (“to touch”).

der

Tangible; perceptible to the sense of touch.

The delicacy of the tactile sense varies on different parts of the skin; it is greatest on the forehead, temples and back of the forearm.

1892, William James, Psychology (Briefer Course)


asparagus

en-noun

asparagus (plural asparagus or asparaguses or asparagusses or asparagi)

asparagus (plural)
asparaguses (plural)
asparagusses (plural)
asparagi (plural)

/əˈspæɹ.ə.ɡəs/

/əˈspæɹ.ə.ɡəs/

/əˈspɛɹ.ə.ɡəs/

Borrowed from Medieval Latin asparagus, sparagus, from Ancient Greek ἀσπάραγος (aspáragos), variant of ἀσφάραγος (aspháragos). Displaced Old English eorþnafola.

Any of various perennial plants of the genus Asparagus having leaflike stems, scalelike leaves, and small flowers.


stygian

en-adj

stygian (comparative more stygian, superlative most stygian)

more stygian (comparative)
most stygian (superlative)

From Latin stygius, from Ancient Greek Στύγιος (Stúgios, “relating to Styx”), from Στύξ (Stúx, “Styx, chief river of underworld”).

uder

Alternative form of Stygian (“of or relating to the river Styx”)

The things which the Stygian darkness hid from my objective eye […]

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 The Gods of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1918 September, →OCLC, page 184:

(vision, of a perceived color) Having a luminosity below 0%.


heliotrope

en-noun

heliotrope (countable and uncountable, plural heliotropes)

PIE word
 *sóh₂wl̥
The noun is borrowed from French héliotrope, from Latin hēliotropium (“plant which turns to face the sun; bloodstone”), from Ancient Greek ἡλῐοτρόπῐον (hēlĭotrópĭon, “European heliotrope (Heliotropium europaeum); bloodstone; solar clock, sundial”), from ἥλῐος (hḗlĭos, “the sun”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥ (“the sun”)) + τρόπος (trópos, “a turn”) (from τρέπω (trépō, “to rotate; to turn”) (from Proto-Indo-European *trep- (“to turn”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming nouns from verbs)) + -ῐον (-ĭon, diminutive suffix forming nouns).
The French-derived spelling displaced Middle English elitrope, eliotropius, elitropium (“plant which turns to face the sun; bloodstone”) [and other forms], from Old English eliotropus, from Latin hēliotropium (see above); and Old English siġelhweorfa, sōlsece, and sunnfolgend (“heliotrope flower”).
Sense 6 (“synonym of bloodstone”) is from the fact that a piece of the mineral placed in water is said to change the sun’s rays to a blood-red colour: see the 1601 quotation.
The adjective is probably derived from the noun.

ref

From the B. A. Colonna collection, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S.A.

nb...

eliscrope, eliotropia, elitrepie, elitropius

garden heliotrope

Heliotropium arborescens or Valeriana officinalis

As they entered now, it seemed a blaze of roses and carnations, though one recognised in a moment the presence of the lily, the heliotrope, and the stock.

1870, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter XXIX, in Lothair. […], volume III, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 326:

Here's newyearspray, the posquiflor, a windaborne and heliotrope; there miriamsweet and amaranth and marygold to crown.

1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part III, page 561:

(countable, botany, also figuratively) A plant with flowers which turn to face and follow the sun, such as (archaic) marigolds and sunflowers.

(specifically) A plant of the genus Heliotropium, especially the common heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens) which has clusters of purple flowers with a strong fragrance.

heliotrooppi

plant of the genus Heliotropium; any of various plants resembling those of the genus Heliotropium

He had lost his affable smile, and wore a look of almost military resolution; […] he had always smelt so much more of heliotrope than of gunpowder.

1881, Henry James, Jr., chapter XLIII, in The Portrait of a Lady, New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 381:

Ransacking the drawers of the dresser he came upon a discarded, tiny, ragged handkerchief. He pressed it to his face. It was racy and insolent with heliotrope; he hurled it to the floor.

1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Furnished Room”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC, page 246:

(uncountable) The fragrance of Heliotropium arborescens flowers, or a scent resembling this fragrance.

heliotroopin tuoksu

fragrance of Heliotropium arborescens flowers; scent resembling this fragrance

heliotrope:

Kit woke to see looming over him the face of Dr. Willi Dingkopf, framed by a haircut in violation of more than one law of physics, and a vivid necktie in fuchsia, heliotrope, and duck green, a gift from one of the patients, […]

2006, Thomas Pynchon, “Bilocations”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 623:

(uncountable) A light purple or violet colour like that of Heliotropium arborescens flowers.

светловиолетов

(signalling):

(surveying):

(countable) An instrument that uses a mirror to reflect sunlight for purposes such as signalling, or (surveying) triangulation (where the reflected light is detected by another surveyor positioned some distance away).

heliotrooppi

instrument that uses a mirror to reflect sunlight for purposes such as signalling or triangulation


heliotrope

en-adj

heliotrope (comparative more heliotrope, superlative most heliotrope)

more heliotrope (comparative)
most heliotrope (superlative)

"Lady in a heliotrope dress with a lace collar, three flounces on the skirt?" / "That's right, Mr. Bennett," agreed old Goslin. / "It's the Babe himself!" asserted Harry Bennett.

1904, Jerome K[lapka] Jerome, “Story the Sixth: ‘The Babe’ Applies for Shares”, in Tommy and Co., 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: Langton and Hall, →OCLC, page 232:

There was a ten-mile stretch of level ground, blown hard as rock, from which the sustenance had been bleached, for not a spear of grass grew there. And following that was a tortuous passage through a weird region of clay dunes, blue and violet and heliotrope and lavender, all worn smooth by rain and wind.

1917 January, Zane Grey, chapter VI, in Wildfire, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 78:

Of a light purple or violet colour like that of Heliotropium arborescens flowers.

heliotroopin värinen

of a light purple or violet colour like that of Heliotropium arborescens flowers


ophthalmology

en-noun

ophthalmology (countable and uncountable, plural ophthalmologies)

/ˌɒfθælˈmɒləd͡ʒi/

/ˌɒpθælˈmɒləd͡ʒi/

He will reproach himself for having been the victim of some of these liabilities, but for others, like his cataract or the bad illumination, he will express regret but not remorse. That is, some of the explanations that he will give for some of his mistakes and failures will be of the same sort as the explanations he would give for his mistakes and failures in counting or multiplying, but some will be of quite different sorts, like the explanations that he couches in the terms of elementary ophthalmology or optics.

1954, Gilbert Ryle, “dilemma vii: Perception”, in Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, page 97:

(medicine) The anatomy, functions, pathology, and treatment of the eye.


gallery

From Middle English galery, gallerye, from Middle French galerie, gallerie, from Old French galerie, gallerie (“a long portico, a gallery”), from Medieval Latin galeria (“gallery”), perhaps an alteration of galilea (“church porch”), probably from Latin Galilaea, Galilee, region of Palestine. More at Galilee.

Holonym: monocle

Comeronyms: ring, lens

adjusting the distance between the bottom gallery and the top gallery

A part of a monocle—a projection off the ring holding the lens—which helps secure the monocle in the eye socket.


presbyopia

presbyopia (usually uncountable, plural presbyopias)

From New Latin presbyōpia, from Ancient Greek πρέσβυς (présbus, “old man”), and New Latin -ōpia (“vision problem”), from Ancient Greek ὤψ (ṓps, “eye”). By surface analysis, presby- + -opia.

der

(pathology) Inability of the eye, due to ageing, to focus on nearby objects.

قُصُوُّ البَصَرِ الشَيْخُوخِيّ

inability of the eye, due to ageing, to focus on nearby objects


musk

en-noun

musk (countable and uncountable, plural musks)

→ Irish: musc

→ Welsh: mwsg

From Middle English muske, borrowed from Old French musc, from Late Latin muscus, from Ancient Greek μόσχος (móskhos), from Middle Persian [script needed] (mwšk' /mušk/) whence Persian مشک (mošk). Ultimately from Sanskrit मुष्क (muṣka, “testicle”), the shape of the gland of animals secreting the substance being compared to human testicles, a diminutive of मूष् (mūṣ, “mouse”), the shape of human testicles being compared to mice, from Proto-Indo-European *muh₂s (“mouse”). Cognate with mouse.

der

I was so excited I could smell my own musk.

(slang, colloquial, vulgar) The scent of human genitalia when aroused or unwashed.


twenty-twenty

From a method of testing vision by reading charts at a distance of 20 feet.

All I want is 20/20 vision / A total portrait with no omissions

1978, “Picture This”, in Debbie Harry (lyrics), Parallel Lines, performed by Blondie:


mermaid

From Middle English mermayde (“maid of the sea”), from mere (“sea, lake”) + maid, equivalent to mer- + maid. Cognate with Dutch meermeid (“mermaid”), Middle High German mermaget, mermeit (“mermaid”, > German Meermagd, Meermädchen (“mermaid”)). Compare Old English meremenn, meremennen, meremenin (“mermaid, siren”).

inh

a mermaid smoothie

mermaid ice-cream

(as a modifier) Coloured a brilliant turquoise.


pinkeye

en-noun

pinkeye (usually uncountable, plural pinkeyes)

A highly contagious form of conjunctivitis.


eyed

From Middle English eyed, eied, iȝed, y-yȝed, equivalent to eye + -ed.

The familiar hatchery practice of agitating the eggs after they are eyed, called shocking or addling, ruptures the yolk membranes of the ever-tender sterile eggs. The result is a precipitation of the globulin and a whitening of the egg.

1980, Earl Leitritz with Robert C[onklin] Lewis, Trout and Salmon Culture (Hatchery Methods) [California Fish Bulletin; 164], Oakland, Calif.: University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, →ISBN, page 24:

The back of the beetle was eyed to make it appear to be a snake to a predator.

What mean you, sir, / To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep; / And I, an ass, am onion-eyed: for shame, / Transform us not to women.

c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

Unseen descending weigh my light wings upon balmy flowers, / And court the fair eyed dew to take me to her shining tent.

1789, William Blake, The Book of Thel, II, lines 55-6:

That she had all the abstracted and nervous manner of one who is on the eve of some bold and hazardous step, which it has required no common struggle to resolve upon, would have been obvious to the lynx-eyed Fagin […]

1838, Charles Dickens, chapter 39, in Oliver Twist:

Gray and blue-eyed parents will tend to have either gray-eyed children only or an equal number of gray- and of blue-eyed children according as the gray-eyed parent is homozygous or heterozygous.

1901 November 7, Gertrude C. Davenport and Charles C. Davenport, “Heredity of Eye-color in Man”, in Science, New Series, MacMillan, Volume 26, Number 670, page 592

Three victims in chains—and one of them, the little servant, the sad-eyed angel.

1960, Elie Wiesel, translated by Stella Rodway, Night, New York: Bantam, published 1986, page 61:

(in compounds) Having the specified kind or number of eyes.


syrupy

en-adj

syrupy (comparative syrupier, superlative syrupiest)

syrupier (comparative)
syrupiest (superlative)

Having the taste or consistency of syrup.

xaropós

having the taste or consistency or syrup


purblind

purblind (comparative more purblind, superlative most purblind)

more purblind (comparative)
most purblind (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English purblind (“(adjective) completely blind; blind in one eye; near-sighted; (noun) near-sighted animal, specifically a hare”) [and other forms], possibly from pur, pure (“completely, entirely”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pewH- (“to be clean; pure”); influenced by pur- (prefix meaning ‘completely; forward; in advance’)) + blind (“sightless, blind”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlendʰ- (“to blend, mix up; to make cloudy or opaque”)).
Sense 4.1 (“completely blind”) was the original sense. The senses denoting partial blindness are possibly the result of confusion of the first element pur- with poor, perhaps through folk etymology. (Compare parboil regarding per versus pars.)
The noun and verb are derived from the adjective.

nb...

poreblind, pore blynde, pur blind, purblinde, purblynd, purblynde, purblyynd, pure blynde

der

Thy dignitie or autorite, wherin thou onely differest from other, is (as it were) but a weighty or heuy cloke, fresshely gliteringe in the eyen of them that be poreblynde, where unto the it is paynefull, if thou weare hym in his right facion, and as it shal best become the.

1531, Thomas Elyot, “The Thre Noble Counsayles of Reason, Societe, and Knowlege”, in Ernest Rhys, editor, The Boke Named the Governour […] (Everyman’s Library), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Co; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co, published [1907], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 203:

And when thou hast on foot the purblind hare, / Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles, / How he outruns the wind, and with what care, / He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles: […]

1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, [verse 114], lines [679–682]; republished as Shakespeare’s Venus & Adonis: […], London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent and Co. […], 1896, →OCLC, verse 114, page 41, lines 679–682:

[H]e vvent into one of the boxes at the play-houſe, as uſual, to ſhevv himſelf to the ladies; and in reconnoitring the company through a glaſs, (for no other reaſon, but becauſe it vvas faſhionable to be purblind) perceived his miſtreſs very plainly dreſſed, in one of the ſeats above the ſtage, talking to another young vvoman of a very homely appearance.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “The Young Gentleman Having Settled His Domestick Affairs, Arrives in London, and Sets Up a Gay Equipage. He Meets with Emilia, and is Introduced to Her Uncle.”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume III, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 12:

They […] ate the messes compounded for them in a darksome cupboard, known as the kitchen, by old Nanon the cook, purblind, stone-deaf, and all but imbecile, and popularly supposed to be the venerable mother of Madame Magnotte.

1868, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “Lenoble of Beaubocage”, in Charlotte’s Inheritance […], volume I, London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler […], →OCLC, book I (De Profundis), page 2:

[T]here were shown in to us an old, worn, purblind, ascetic-looking priest, […]

1891 February–December, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Hatiheu”, in In the South Seas […], New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1896, →OCLC, part I (The Marquesas), page 63:

Of a person: having impaired vision; partially blind; dim-sighted.

অন্ধপ্রায়

of a person: having impaired vision; partially blind — see also dim-sighted


pastel

en-noun

pastel (countable and uncountable, plural pastels)

Borrowed from French pastel, from Italian pastello (“pastel”), from Medieval Latin pastellum (“dough, paste”), from Latin pasta (“dough, paste”), ultimately from Ancient Greek πάστη (pástē, “dough, paste”). Doublet of pastegh, pastiglia, pastila, pastilla, and pastille.

doublet

Wool was dyed in the pastel vat.


oatmeal

en-noun

oatmeal (usually uncountable, plural oatmeals)

From Middle English otemele, from ote (“oat”) + mele (“meal, coarse-ground grains”). Equivalent to oat + meal.

A breakfast cereal made from rolled oats, cooked in milk and/or water.

вівся́не бо́рошно n (vivsjáne bórošno, literally “oat flour”)

oatmeal:

A light greyish brown colour, like that of oatmeal.


oatmeal

Boldly patterned textiles in oatmeal tones with a woven design in a strongly contrasting colour can be used alike for upholstery and as a wall hanging […]

Of a light greyish brown colour, like that of oatmeal


apple of the eye

apple of the eye (plural apples of the eye)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-apple of the eye.wav

From Middle English appel of the eyȝe, appel of þe ye, perhaps dissimilated from Middle English ij appel (literally “eye-apple”). More at eye-apple.

der

The pupil, or pupil and iris, of the eye, originally believed to be spherical; also, the eyeball.


heteronymous

en-adj

heteronymous (comparative more heteronymous, superlative most heteronymous)

more heteronymous (comparative)
most heteronymous (superlative)

(ophthalmology) Heteronymous hemianopsia (blindness in the left side of one eye and the right side of the other eye)


squint

Derived from asquint (“obliquely, with a sidelong glance”).

Looking obliquely; having the vision distorted.


strabismus

en-noun

strabismus (usually uncountable, plural strabismuses)

Borrowed from New Latin strabismus, from Ancient Greek στραβισμός (strabismós), from στραβίζω (strabízō, “to squint”), from στραβός (strabós, “squinting”) (whence the synonymous Latin strabus).

A defect of vision in which one eye cannot focus with the other on an object because of imbalance of the eye muscles; a squint.


optical

en-adj

optical (comparative more optical, superlative most optical)

more optical (comparative)
most optical (superlative)

Strabismus is an optical defect.


blaze orange

blaze orange:


nidorous

nidorous (comparative more nidorous, superlative most nidorous)

more nidorous (comparative)
most nidorous (superlative)

From nidor (“the unpleasant smell of some cooked animal substances”) + -ous, or from Medieval Latin nidorosus.

affix

‘Taste my breath—is it not fetid, foul, and nidorous?’

1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter XVIII, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 163:

That old man's niderous whispered breath had entered into MacMurrough's heart an insufflation of—of what, exactly?

2002, Jamie O'Neill, chapter 10, in At Swim, Two Boys, →ISBN, page 240:

(literary) Emitting a strong, unpleasant odor, especially one like that of cooking fat or similar greasy substances.

палёный

Emitting the odor or taste of roasted meat, especially rotten meat


ocular

Derived from the Latin oculāris (“of the eye”), from oculus (“eye”).

The eyepiece of a microscope or other optical instrument, i.e., the optical element closest to the eye.


odorous

en-adj

odorous (comparative more odorous, superlative most odorous)

more odorous (comparative)
most odorous (superlative)

From Middle English odorous, from Medieval Latin odōrōsus, equivalent to odor + -ous.

The table was piled with odorous lilies.


odorless

They were taken unawares and overcome when the room filled with a lethal, odorless gas.

The garlion is a cross between the garlic and onion; the topeppo combines the tomato and the pepper. We have the odorless onion, the odorless cabbage, the lemon cucumber that grows on a vine but looks like a lemon, and a giant cucumber

1936, The Reader's Digest, volume 29, page 99:

The Invisible Killer Dihydrogen monoxide is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there.

1995, John December, quoting Craig Jackson, The World Wide Web Unleashed, 2nd edition, Indianapolis, Ind.: Sams.net, →ISBN, page 450:


odourless

They were taken unawares and overcome when the room filled with a lethal, odourless gas.

Smiling, young, muscular, paunchless, probably odourless, he went.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 357:


ogle

17th century. Probably from Low German ögeln (“to ogle, to flirt with one's eyes”), from Middle Low German ö̂gelen, frequentative of Middle Low German ö̂gen, from Old Saxon ōgian, from Proto-West Germanic *augijan (“to show”). Alternatively from an equivalent Dutch *ogelen, but this seems unattested (only the simplex ogen). In both cases equivalent to English eye + -le.

der

Will you take a varder at the cartz on the feely-omi in the naf strides: the one with the bona blue ogles polarying the omi-palone with a vogue on and a cod sheitel.

1997, James Gardiner, Who's a Pretty Boy Then?, page 137:

Slick, she bamboozles the ogles / of old Lilly Law.

2015 October 12, Adam Lowe, “Poem of the week: Vada That”, in The Guardian:


blink

en-verb

blink (third-person singular simple present blinks, present participle blinking, simple past and past participle blinked)

blinks (present singular third-person)
blinking (participle present)
blinked (participle past)
blinked (past)

From Middle English blynken, blenken, from Old English blincan (suggested by causative verb blenċan (“to deceive”); > English blench), from Proto-Germanic *blinkaną, a variant of *blīkaną (“to gleam, shine”).
Cognate with Dutch blinken (“to glitter, shine”), German blinken (“to flash, blink”), Danish blinke (“to flash, twinkle, wink, blink”), Swedish blinka (“to flash, blink, twinkle, wink, blink”). Related to blank, blick, blike, bleak.

blikat

to flash on and off at regular intervals

One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame.

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

(intransitive) To close and reopen both eyes quickly.

To wink; to twinkle with, or as with, the eye.


optical illusion

en-noun

optical illusion (plural optical illusions)

Each show spans over 180 minutes, including 40-plus songs from at least nine albums; there are 16 costume changes, pyrotechnics, an optical illusion in which she appears to dive into the stage and swim, and not one but two cottagecore worlds, which feature an abundance of moss.

2023 December 6, Sam Lansky, “Person of Year 2023 : Taylor Swift”, in Time:

An image that is visually deceptive or misleading.


fragrance

fragrance (countable and uncountable, plural fragrances)

/ˈfɹeɪɡɹəns/

Borrowed from French fragrance, from Latin fragrantia. See fragrant.

You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.

2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better, Plum, →ISBN, page 192:


spicy

en-adj

spicy (comparative spicier, superlative spiciest)

spicier (comparative)
spiciest (superlative)

From spice + -y, attested since the 16th century.

This curry is too spicy for me. I can't eat it.

(informal, of flavors) Provoking a burning sensation due to the presence of capsaicin.

حَار

providing a burning sensation due to chilies and other spices

She breathed in the strong, spicy aroma.

The breath of the mountain heifer was fragrant as the gales of Sirendiep, by feeding on ſpicy herbs.

1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:

(of foods, flavors, or odors) Tangy, zesty, or pungent.

I don't want my children to see the spicy images on this web site.

(Internet slang) Risqué, sexy, racy; mildly pornographic.


evil eye

/ˌiːvl̩‿ˈaɪ/

From Middle English ivel eie (“evil eye; envy”), from Old English eage yfel, a calque of Latin oculus malus, from oculus (“eye”) + malus (“bad, evil, wicked; destructive, hurtful, injurious; unfavourable, unlucky”).

nb...

Edited with Introduction and Glossary from the Royal MS. 7 C iv. in the British Museum by E. W. Rhodes, M.A. Langton Fellow of the Owens College, Victoria University, Manchester

Each of the young men, in saluting the new-comer, made mechanically, and with care to conceal it from him, a slight gesture or sign with their fingers; for Arbaces, the Egyptian, was supposed to possess the fatal gift of the evil eye.

1834, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Blind Flower-girl, and the Beauty of Fashion.—The Athenian’s Confession.—The Reader’s Introduction to Arbaces of Egypt.”, in The Last Days of Pompeii. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […]; successor to Henry Colburn, →OCLC, book I, page 25:

The ὀφθαλμὸς βάσκανος, or evil eye, is frequently mentioned by ancient writers. […] Various amulets were used to avert the influence of the evil eye. The most common of these appears to have been the phallus, called by the Romans fascinum, which was hung round the necks of children (turpicula res).

1842, Charles Anthon, “FA′SCINUM”, in edited by William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities […], 3rd American edition, New York, N.Y., Cincinnati, Oh.: American Book Company, published 1843, →OCLC, pages 431–432, column 1:

A common dread was the evil eye, and the chief charm against it was in the form of a knotted cord woven by a "wise woman".

1936, Rollo Ahmed, “The Ancient Magic of the East”, in The Black Art, London: Senate, Studio Editions, published 1994, →ISBN, page 26:

A wicked look conveying dislike or envy that in many cultures is believed to be able to cause bad luck or injury; also, the ability to cause bad luck or injury through such a look, supposed to be possessed by some people.

syri i keq

wicked look conveying dislike or envy believed to be able to cause bad luck or injury; the ability to cause bad luck or injury through such a look

Isma laughed, but Hira drew her shoulders in tighter, reached out to touch the evil eye that hung on her wall and which Isma had always assumed to be merely decorative.

2017, Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire, Bloomsbury (2018), page 11:

The charm used to ward off the evil eye; a nazar.

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed euill thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, / Thefts, couetouſneſſe, wickedneſſe, deceit, laſciuiouſneſſe, an euill eye, blaſphemie, pride, fooliſhneſſe: / All theſe euill things come from within, and defile the man.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 7:21–23, column 1:

[A] Noble Venetian, vvho is ſtill a Merchant, told me, they vvill ſpeedily find out ſome Method to redreſs it; probably by making a free Port, for they look vvith an Evil Eye upon Leghorne, that dravvs to it moſt of the Veſſels bound for Italy.

1705, J[oseph] Addison, “Venice”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 84:

If you tell me, "Good morning" / I'm gonna tell you, "That's a lie" / If you say I'm old, baby / I'm gonna give you the evil eye

1964 February 18, Lionel Hampton, Leonard Feather (lyrics and music), “Evil Gal Blues”, in Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington, performed by Aretha Franklin, New York, N.Y.: Columbia Records, →OCLC:

(often humorous) A look conveying disapproval, envy, hostility, etc.


dekko

Borrowed from Hindustani देखो / دیکھو (dekho), imperative of देखना / دیکھنا (dekhnā, “to see, to look”).

But now there was a listlessness about her, not the listlessness of the cat Augustus but more that of the female in the picture in the Louvre, of whom Jeeves, on the occasion when he lugged me there to take a dekko at her, said that here was the head upon which all the ends of the world are come.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

Phipps went on: “One of our chaps, out on a reccy over the Bulgarian front, thought he saw something in the snow. Something fishy. He dropped down to have a dekko and nearly had kittens. What d'you think? Jerry's got a mass of stuff there—tanks, guns, lorries, every sort of heavy armament. All camouflaged. White.”

2011 [1965], Olivia Manning, Friends And Heroes (The Balkan Trilogy), Random House, →ISBN:


éminence grise

en-noun

éminence grise (plural éminences grises or éminence grises)

éminences grises (plural)
éminence grises (plural)

/ˌɛmɪnɒns ˈɡɹiːz/

Borrowed from French éminence grise (literally “grey eminence”), originally applied to François Leclerc du Tremblay (1577–1638), also known as Père Joseph, a French Capuchin friar who was the confidant and agent of Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642), the chief minister of France under Louis XIII (1601–1643). The term refers to du Tremblay’s influence over the Cardinal (who bore the honorific of Eminence), and the colour of his habit (grey, rather than the red of a cardinal).

bor

But Harry Hopkins was no mere manipulator of people and ideas, no eminence grise masterminding the actions of figureheads.

1987 July 12, John A[rthur] Garraty, “Harry’s Luck [book review of Harry Hopkins: Ally of the Poor and Defender of Democracy by George McJimsey]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-19, page 28:

[Ichirō] Ozawa is the Secretary-General of [Yukio] Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) and the éminence grise of the electoral campaign that catapulted the new Prime Minister to power.

2009 September 16, Coco Masters, “Japan’s New Prime Minister—and New Shadow Shogun”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-10-21:

(idiomatic) A secret or unofficial decision-maker.

Cardinal Richelieu
François Leclerc du Tremblay
Louis XIII

灰衣主教

secret or unofficial decision-maker — see also power behind the throne

се́рый кардина́л m (séryj kardinál, literally “grey cardinal”)


waft

From Middle English waften, of uncertain origin. Possibly from unattested Old English *wafettan, from wafian (“to wave”) + -ettan, or perhaps borrowed from Middle Dutch wachten (“to guard, provide for”).
See also German wabern (“to waft”), Faroese veiftra (“to wave”) and Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”).

der

Meanwhile, the wafts from his old home pleaded, whispered, conjured, and finally claimed him imperiously.

1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, London: Methuen, →ISBN:

Patrol Magazine says of this Oxford, Miss., band: "Guitars are responsible for every noise in Colour Revolt's mix—not a single note of piano, waft of synthesizer, or evidence of electronic tampering are to be found.[…]"

2010 September, “The SLM Calendar”, in St. Louis Magazine, volume 16, number 9, St. Louis, Mo.: Hartmann Pub. Co., →ISSN, page 170:

Something (such as an odor or perfume) that is carried through the air.


agog

en-adj

agog (comparative more agog, superlative most agog)

more agog (comparative)
most agog (superlative)

From Middle English agogge, from Old French en + gogues (“in a merry mood”). See also Italian agognare (“to desire eagerly”).

Cotton Mather came galloping down
All the way to Newbury town,
With his eyes agog and his ears set wide,
And his marvellous inkhorn at his side;

1860, John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Two-Headed Snake of Newbury”, in Home Ballads:

. . . and did not move even when the frogs crept out of the water and listened, with their gold-rimmed eyes all agog, and their yellow throats palpitating.

1894, Ford Madox Ford, The queen who flew: a fairy tale, page 41:

People leaning forward, their lips parted a little, their eyes agog, staring at her, Elinor, with a horrible ghoulish excitement . . .

1940, Agatha Christie, Sad Cypress, page 9:

Joe shook his head in awe, eyes agog and mouth hanging open as mine once must have hung for the tales of the north woods' legendary denizens.

1964, Ken Kesey, Sometimes a Great Notion, page 190:


hearing aid

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hearing aid.wav

Sadly, the ever-eager Reverend Judith had not been able to conjure up many worshippers, even though it was Father’s Day. There was just one old dear sitting halfway back, her faulty hearing aid letting off a high-pitched whistle.

2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

A device used to help the hard of hearing to hear sounds.


hard of hearing

hard of hearing (comparative more hard of hearing, superlative most hard of hearing)

more hard of hearing (comparative)
most hard of hearing (superlative)

Coordinate term: hard of seeing

Speak loudly, because Grandpa is somewhat hard of hearing.

(idiomatic) Having difficulty hearing; somewhat deaf.


palatable

palatable (comparative more palatable, superlative most palatable)

more palatable (comparative)
most palatable (superlative)

For some instant noodles make a palatable, if not especially nutritious, meal.

The fermentation of flour by means of brewer’s or distiller’s yeast produces, if rightly managed, results far more palatable and wholesome.

1896, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Household Papers and Stories:


crusty

From Middle English, equivalent to crust + -y.

Against the backdrop of muted stripes of color, Julieanne picked at her eyes’ crusties, and then combed her hair with the hand.

1999, Vinnie Hansen, Murder, Honey, Xlibris Corporation,, →ISBN, page 155:

Jesus, how could I bear the sight of him—sleep crusties lodged in the corners of his rheumy eyes, a puff of chest hair cresting like meringue over the top of his V-neck sweater, khakis jacked up to his breastbone—when I was used to looking at the singularly lovely Isabella?

2003, Mary O'Connell, “Saint Anne”, in Living with Saints, Grove Press, →ISBN, page 209:

I wiped the crusties from my eyes, threw on a sundress, and wandered out into the living room.

2005, Jeffrey Dinsmore, I, an Actress: The Autobiography of Karen Jamey, Contemporary Press, page 51


tawny

tawny (comparative tawnier, superlative tawniest)

tawnier (comparative)
tawniest (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English tauni, tawne (“having a brownish-orange colour”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman taune, tawné, and Old French tané, tanné, tanney (“of a tan colour”), an adjective use of the past participle of taner (“to turn hide into leather, tan”), from tan (“pulped oak bark used to tan leather, tanbark”), ultimately from Proto-Celtic *tannos (“green oak”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)dʰnwos, *(s)dʰonu (“fir”).
The -aw- spelling (also -au- in Middle English) seems to have been due to the pronunciation of Old French tané.
The verb is derived from the adjective.
Cognates
* Breton tann
* Medieval Latin tannāre (“to dye a tawny color; to tan”)
* Old Irish caerthann (“rowan”)

nb...

taunde, taunei, tauneʒ, tauny, tawny, (chiefly Northern England, Scotland) tanei, tani, tanne, tannee, tanny, tannye, tany, thanne

cog

And if any of your nation attempte once to ſtoppe me in my iorney now towards Calais, […] I in my defence ſhall colour and make red your tawny ground with the effuſion of chriſtian bloud: […]

1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “King Henrie the Fifth”, in The Laste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume II, London: […] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, page 1077, column 2:

The VVooſell cock, ſo blacke of hevve, / VVith Orange tavvny bill, / The Throſtle, vvith his note ſo true, / The VVren, vvith little quill.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

Come, vve muſt haue you turne Fiddler againe, ſlaue, 'get a Baſe Violin at your backe, and march in a Tavvnie Coate, vvith one ſleeue, to Gooſe-faire, and then you'll knovve vs; […]

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III, scene iv:

To the Queen he gave […] a ſmall Box full of large Needles; then he gave her ſome courſe brovvn Thread, and ſhovv'd her hovv to thred the Needle and ſovv any Thing together vvith the Thread; all vvhich ſhe admired exceedingly, and call'd her Tavvny Maids of Honour about her, that they might learn alſo.

1725, [Daniel Defoe], “Part I”, in A New Voyage Round the World, by a Course Never Sailed before. […], London: […] A[rthur] Bettesworth, […]; and W. Mears, […], →OCLC, page 155:

[T]he vvatch-dogs and aſſembled ſvvains / Have driv'n a tavvny lion from the ſtalls, […]

1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book XI.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 289, lines 661–662:

[T]he head waiter inquired with respectful solicitude whether that port, being a light and tawny wine, was suited to his taste, or whether he would wish to try a fruity port with greater body.

1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, “Will be Seen in the Long Run, if Not in the Short One, to Concern Mr. Pinch and Others, Nearly. […]”, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, pages 150–151:

[P]erhaps they metamorphose themselves into a tawny squirrel that scampers away and mocks you from the topmost bough.

1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “In the Wood”, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 240:

There were the tawny rocks, like lions couchant, defying the ocean, whose waves incessantly dashed against and scoured them with vast quantities of gravel.

1865, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Shipwreck”, in [Sophia Thoreau; William Ellery Channing], editors, Cape Cod, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 14:

He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon; / And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon, / When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor, / A red-coat troop came marching— / Marching—marching— / King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 2, stanza I, pages 48–49:

They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time their intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted walls.

1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, “Wayfarers All”, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 196:

I never thought I'd meet a girl like you / With auburn hair and tawny eyes

1982 March, Frank Maudsley, Paul Reynolds, Ali Score, Mike Score (lyrics and music), “I Ran (So Far Away)”, in A Flock of Seagulls, performed by A Flock of Seagulls:

Dio Cassius, writing more than one hundred years after the event, described Boudicca as 'very tall, in appearance most terrifying … the glance of her eye most fierce, her voice harsh … a great mass of the tawniest hair fell to her hips'.

2001, John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves, “Romano-British Rulers”, in The Kings & Queens of Britain, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 13:

ANTILLEAN NIGHTHAWK Chordeiles gundlachii […] Somewhat tawnier and smaller than Common Nighthawk, but readily distinguished from it only by call.

2019, Roger Tory Peterson, Michael DiGiorgio, Paul Lehman, Peter Pyle, Larry Rosche, “Owls and Nightjars”, in Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guides), 2nd edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 230:

Of a light brown to brownish orange colour.

آدَم

of a light brown to brownish orange colour


tawny

en-verb

tawny (third-person singular simple present tawnies, present participle tawnying, simple past and past participle tawnied)

tawnies (present singular third-person)
tawnying (participle present)
tawnied (participle past)
tawnied (past)

So many friends, their friendſhips daily breake, / That fevve are faithfull, if that fevve be any: / The Sunne ſo ſoone, the painted face vvill tavvny.

1602, Nicholas Breton, The Mothers Blessing, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for Iohn Smethick, […], →OCLC, signature [D4], recto:

He [Vulcan] ſmels all ſmoake, and vvith his naſty ſvveate / Tavvnies my skinne, out on him vgly knaue, / Mars is my loue, and he my ſvveets ſhall haue.

1613, Thomas Heywood, The Brazen Age, […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, […], →OCLC, Act II, signature I2, verso:

Alas 'tis faded, ſoyl'd vvith the ſmoke of Luſt; / So ſvvarthy as if that glorious face of thine / VVere tavvnyed underneath the torrid Line: […]

1632, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “On Gods Image”, in Divine Fancies: Digested into Epigrammes, Meditations, and Observations, London: […] Iohn Marriot, […], →OCLC, book III, page 148:

The General stares into the sandstorm churned up by all that movement. Like a curtain draped across the world, tawnying the October sky.

2017, Nathan Englander, “2014, Limbo”, in Dinner at the Centre of the Earth, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN:

(transitive) To cause (someone or something) to have a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn.

The countenance alone bespoke the years and the cares of John M‘Whirter. The deep wrinkled brow—the cheek plaited, and tawnied in the sun and the frosts of the north— […]

1825, chapter XI, in The Abduction; or, The Adventures of Major Sarney: A Story of the Times of Charles the Second. […], volume II, London: […] [William Clowes] for Charles Knight, […], →OCLC, page 249:

In his drowse it all turned gleaming and mixing in him, his whole life, like the river gleaming taut between the trees. And everything that had ever happened to him tawnied over by the voluptuous light of the last fall, and his mouth watered for it all.

1990, Meridel Le Sueur, “Gone Home”, in Elaine Hedges, editor, Ripening: Selected Work, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, →ISBN, page 215:

[C]olheita is actually a tawny Port from a single vintage. In other words, it has aged (and softened and tawnied) in wood for many years.

2019, Ed McCarthy, Mary Ewing-Mulligan, “Wine Roads Less Traveled: Fortified and Dessert Wines”, in Wine for Dummies (For Dummies), 7th edition, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part 5 (Wine’s Exotic Face), page 318:

(intransitive) To become a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn.


tawny

en-noun

tawny (countable and uncountable, plural tawnies or tawnys)

From Middle English tauni, tawne (“brownish-orange colour; cloth of this colour; sweet beverage of this colour”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman tawné, and Old French tané, tanné, tanney (“tan colour; cloth of this colour”), from tané (verb): see further at etymology 1.
Sense 2.1 (“Eurasian bullfinch”) is due to the brown colour of the female.

kellanruskea

something of a light brown or brownish orange colour

tawny:

Neere to Canuſia, the ſheepe be deepe yellovv or tavvnie; and about Tarentum, they are of a brovvne and duſkiſh colour.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VIII.] Divers Kinds of Wooll and Clothes.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 227:

Despise not my discolour'd look: / This tawny from the sun I took.

1641, George Sandys, “A Paraphrase upon the Song of Solomon. Canto I.”, in The Poetical Works of George Sandys. […], volume II, London: John Russell Smith, […], published 1872, →OCLC, page 340:

From the follovving Dye are Compoſed the beſt Tavvnies, Grey and Crimſon Goat Colours. […] The Silk muſt be put in vvhen the Suds are cold, for the colder the Suds, the blevver the Violet Colour, vvhich muſt alvvays be blevver than the Tavvnies.

1705, “Part I. Of Silk Dying.”, in [anonymous], transl., The Whole Art of Dying. […], London: […] William Pearson, and sold by J[ohn] Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 14:

And thus by varying the Colours you ſhall produce all ſorts of mixtures: So black and vvhite variouſly mixed make a vaſt Company of deep and light Greys, Bleus and Yellovvs, many Greens; Red and Yellovv Orange Tavvnies, […] the more the Red the deeper the Orange Tavvnies, and ſo forth; and thus muſt they in your VVork be ſhaded and heightened vvith Colours of their ovvn Affinity: […]

1720, Tho[mas] Page, Junior, “The Materials of Painting, Describing the Chief Colours to be Used; […]”, in The Art of Painting in Its Rudiment, Progress, and Perfection: […], Norwich, Norfolk: […] , […], →OCLC, pages 48–49:

'Gad, if Miss S. will have me, I'm her man. I ain't particular about a shade or so of tawny.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In which Mr. Osborne Takes Down the Family Bible”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 200:

A light brown to brownish orange colour.

[T]he Herehaught [herald] muſt have a ſinguler reſpect to the face of him that ſhould haue the Armes, vvhere he ſhal vvel perceiue in vvhat ſeaſõ of the yere, his ovvn complexion vvill ſerue him to do beſt ſeruice in: […] If in Somer, either a Hound or Salamandra, or ſome part of them, of the colour Bruske, vvhich is betvveene Geules and tavvney.

1597, Gerard Leigh [i.e., Gerard Legh], The Accedence of Armorie, London: […] Henrie Ballard […], →OCLC, folio 116, verso:

Tavvny (ſaith Leigh [i.e., Gerard Legh]) is a Colour of vvorſhip, and of ſome Heralds it is called Bruske, and is moſt commonly borne of French Gentlemen, but very fevv doe beare it in England. In Blazon it is knovvne by the name of Tenne. It is (ſaith he) the ſureſt colour that is (of ſo bright a hevv being compounded) for it is made of tvvo bright Colours, vvhich are Red and Yellovv: […]

1632, John Guillim, “Sect[ion] I. Chap[ter] III.”, in A Display of Heraldrie: […], 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Badger for Ralph Mab, →OCLC, page 21:

Tenne, vvhich is the tavvny or Orange colour, is marked by diagonal lines dravvn from the Siniſter to the Dexter ſide of the Shield, traverſed by perpendicular lines from the Chief; […]

1765, Mark Anthony Porny [pseudonym; Antoine Pyron du Martre], “Of the Essential and Integral Parts of Arms. Article II. Of the Tinctures.”, in The Elements of Heraldry, […], London: […] J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC, section I (Of Colours), page 17:

Some heraldic writers extend the number of tinctures to seven, by the addition of sanguine or murrey, dark blood or mulberry-colour, and tenné, tawny, or orange-colour; while others who admit them into the catalogue declare them, at the same time, to be stainant, or disgraceful; but, as I have stated in my notice of Abatements (p. 171), it is very improbable any one would bear arms so degraded; and the strongest proof that no such opinion with respect to these two colours existed in the days of chivalry is, that the livery colours of the house of York were murrey and blue, and that tawny was apparently much affected by the retainers of the nobility and Church dignitaries.

1859 April, J[ames] R[obinson] Planché, “Appendix”, in The Pursuivant of Arms; or, Heraldry Founded upon Facts. […], new edition, London: Robert Hardwicke, […], →OCLC, page 209:

(specifically, heraldry) Synonym of tenné (“a rarely-used tincture of orange or bright brown”)


brownish

en-adj

brownish (comparative more brownish, superlative most brownish)

more brownish (comparative)
most brownish (superlative)

The Giraffe and the Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Hartebeest lived there; and they were 'sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over […]

1902, Rudyard Kipling, “How the Leopard Got His Spots”, in Just So Stories:

Two pumps stood side by side in our kitchen. One was for well water and one was a cistern pump—water from the former was hard and clear, from the cistern it was brownish and soft.

1942, Emily Carr, “Waterworks”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:

Watt wore, on his feet, a boot, brown in colour, and a shoe, happily of a brownish colour also.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

Of a colour which resembles brown; somewhat brown.

brunenc

of a colour which resembles brown; somewhat brown


verdant

verdant (comparative more verdant, superlative most verdant)

more verdant (comparative)
most verdant (superlative)

From Middle French verdoyant, from Old French verb verdier, verdoier, from vert (“green”), from Vulgar Latin *virdis, from Latin viridis.


seedy

seedy (comparative seedier, superlative seediest)

seedier (comparative)
seediest (superlative)

From Middle English sedy, equivalent to seed + -y.

Pomegranates are as seedy as any fruit you are likely to see.

Literal senses:
Seedlike; having the flavour of seeds.

(colloquial) Having a peculiar flavour supposed to be derived from the weeds growing among the vines; said of certain kinds of French brandy.

With her aching back and pronounced limp, she was feeling particularly seedy today.

After last night’s party we were all feeling pretty seedy.


piquant

piquant (comparative more piquant, superlative most piquant)

more piquant (comparative)
most piquant (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French piquant (“pricking, stimulating, irritating”), present participle of piquer, possibly from Old French pikier (“to prick, sting, nettle”). Doublet of picong. Related to pike.

der

Pork Chops with Apple and Port These chops are baked in a piquant sauce containing fruit, honey, cinnamon, lemon and port, all of which reduces to a spicy syrup.

2000, Lynn Bedford Hall, The Best of Cooking in South Africa, 2nd edition, Cape Town: Struik Publishers, →ISBN, page 103:

Elsewhere in South America, excepting Bahia in Brazil, one does not encounter piquant cuisine, although one may stumble on a piquant dish now and then […]

2005, Clifford A. Wright, Some Like it Hot: Spicy Favorites from the World's Hot Zones, Boston, Mass.: Harvard Common Press, →ISBN, page 170:

French charcuterie relies on cloves in the quatre épices, or four-spice powder, for seasoning fine sausages and piquant marinades.

2009, Sara Engram with Katie Luber and Kimberly Toqe, The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking with Organic Spices, Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN, page 9:

Favorably stimulating to the palate; pleasantly spicy; tangy.


whiff

en-verb

whiff (third-person singular simple present whiffs, present participle whiffing, simple past and past participle whiffed)

whiffs (present singular third-person)
whiffing (participle present)
whiffed (participle past)
whiffed (past)

The noun is possibly:
* partly a variant of Middle English wef, weffe (“bad smell, stench, stink; exhalation; vapour; tendency of something to go bad (?)”) [and other forms], possibly a variant of either:
** waf, waif, waife (“odour, scent”), possibly from waven (“to move to and fro, sway, wave; to stray, wander; to move in a weaving manner; (figuratively) to hesitate, vacillate”), from Old English wafian (“to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”); or
** wef (“a blow, stroke”), from weven (“to travel, wander; to move to and fro, flutter, waver; to blow something away, waft; to cause something to move; to fall; to cut deeply; to sever; to give up, yield; to give deference to; to avoid; to afflict, trouble; to beckon, signal”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Old English wefan (“to weave”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”)), or from wǣfan (see bewǣfan, ymbwǣfan); and
* partly onomatopoeic.
Noun sense 6 (“name of a number of flatfish”) is possibly derived from sense 1 (“brief, gentle breeze; a light gust of air”), sense 4 (“small quantity of cloud, smoke, vapour, etc.”), and other such senses.
The verb and adjective are derived from the noun. Verb sense 2.6 (“to catch fish by dragging a handline near the surface of the water from a moving boat”) is possibly derived from sense 1.1 (“to carry or convey (something) by, or as by, a whiff or puff of air”), sense 2.2 (“to be carried, or move as if carried, by a puff of air”), and other such senses.
The interjection is derived from noun sense 7.4 (“a sound like that of air passing through a small opening; a short or soft whistle”).


phthalo green

From phthalo and green, from phthalocyanine.

phthalo green:

A synthetic pigment (full name phthalocyanine) of a bright, high intensity, used in oil- and acrylic-based artists' paints, and in other applications.


foxy

en-adj

foxy (comparative foxier, superlative foxiest)

foxier (comparative)
foxiest (superlative)


monocle

1886, borrowed from French monocle, from Late Latin monoculus (“one-eyed”), from mono- (“single”) + oculus (“eye”).

A single lens, usually in a wire frame, and used to correct vision for only one eye.


redolent

redolent (comparative more redolent, superlative most redolent)

more redolent (comparative)
most redolent (superlative)

From Middle English redolent (first attested in 1400), from Old French redolent, from Latin redolentem, present participle of redoleō (“I emit a scent”), from red- + oleō (“I smell”).

Most of the articles were home-made; the bread, the yellow butter, as golden as the cups to which it has given name; the thickest cream, and a honeycomb redolent of the thyme which even then echoed with the hum of the bees.

1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, pages 163–164:

His breath is already redolent of whiskey.

1861, Francis Colburn Adams, chapter 32, in An Outcast:

Stephen, that is when the accosting figure came to close quarters, though he was not in an over sober state himself recognised Corley's breath redolent of rotten cornjuice.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 572:

Having the smell of the article in question.


bubblegum

en-noun

bubblegum (countable and uncountable, plural bubblegums)

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

(usually uncountable) A sweet chewing gum formulated to be stretchy so the chewer can blow bubbles with it.

Born in the small town of Rockwood, east Tennessee, Carter’s bubblegum sound and mini-bad boy image made him the definitive millennium child star.

2022 November 6, Emma Garland, “Aaron Carter was the millennium’s bubblegum bad boy – and the victim of a rapacious music industry”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(music, sometimes derogatory) A type of pop music marked by sweetness, pep and charm (rather than depth or complexity).

bubblegum:

(countable and uncountable) A light pink colour, like bubblegum.


bubblegum

(by extension) Sweet, perky, or youthful.


colorless

en-adj

colorless (comparative more colorless, superlative most colorless)

more colorless (comparative)
most colorless (superlative)

The servant to whom he put this question was a young fellow with chubby cheeks, small, dull eyes, and a round chin, covered with a colorless down.

1867, Ivan Sergheïevitch Turgenef [i.e., Ivan Turgenev], chapter I, in Eugene Schuyler, transl., Fathers and Sons […], New York, N.Y.: Leypoldt and Holt, →OCLC, page 1:


fuscous

fuscous (comparative more fuscous, superlative most fuscous)

more fuscous (comparative)
most fuscous (superlative)

From Latin fusc(us) (“dark, dusky”) + -ous.

‘Fresh, fresh, fresh,’ one commented in deep bass on the departing soldier, and the other nodded assent, though in that cave of spoiled air and fuscous lamplight the word ‘fresh’ was misleading […].

1928, Edmund Blunden, Undertones of War, Penguin, published 2010, page 140:

Of a dark, brownish-grey color; dark-hued, dusky, swarthy.


fusty

fusty (comparative fustier, superlative fustiest)

fustier (comparative)
fustiest (superlative)

From Old French fust (“wood”) (modern French fût (“cask”)), from Latin fūstis (“a cudgel”).
Compare Scots foosty.

In contrast to exploitation or suppression or even alienation, involution is presented as part of the natural order of things—like bad weather. You can’t point fingers at an abstraction or rally against a fusty term from an anthropology text.

2021 May 14, Yi-Ling Liu, “China’s “Involuted” Generation”, in The New Yorker:

An anonymously sourced report by one of Britain’s freewheeling tabloid newspapers has sparked a debate over both tabloid journalistic ethics and sexism in Parliament, leading some to question whether the institution is capable of shedding its fusty reputation and becoming an inclusive workplace.

2022 April 26, Stephen Castle, Megan Specia, “U.K. Tabloid Accuses Lawmaker of ‘Basic Instinct’ Move, Highlighting Sexism in Parliament”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Oh sweet surprise - oh dear delight
To find it undisputed quite -
All musty, fusty rules despite,
That Art is wrong and Nature right!

1893, W. S. Gilbert, Utopia, Limited, Act II:

(figuratively, by extension) Old-fashioned, refusing to change or update.

старомоден

old-fashioned, refusing to change or update


fetor

en-noun

fetor (countable and uncountable, plural fetors)

Heʼd thrown rancid meat in a fire to fill the woods with the ripe fetor of death.

2021, Rivers Solomon, Sorrowland, #Merky Books, page 39:


eye chart

The doctor said I needed glasses after I failed to read past the fourth line on the eye chart.

A sign or poster showing letters or symbols in progressively smaller lines of type, used to test distance vision.


cornea

cornea (plural corneas or corneae or (archaic) corneæ)

corneas (plural)
corneae (plural)
corneæ (archaic plural)

From Latin cornea tela (“horny tissue”), from cornu (“horn”).

Or instead of treating them with the developing solution, the corneæ may be removed to a warm, concentrated solution of tartaric acid and remain there at the temperature of an incubating stove until the gold is fully reduced.

1885, Arthur Bolles Lee, chapter XI, in The Microtomist’s Vade‐Mecum, P. Blakiston, Son & Co, page 93:

In the lateral view (fig. 26) the corneae seemed very flat, their convexity not exceeding that of the bulbi (cornea plana?);

1969, P. P. H. Alkemade, Dysgenesis Mesodermalis of the Iris and the Cornea: A Study of Rieger’s Syndrome and Peter’s Anomaly, page 119:

The corneae were swollen without major infiltrates similar to longstanding disciform edema.

1981, R. Sundmacher, D. Neumann-Haefelin, A. Mattes, K. Cantell, “Connatal Monosymptomatic Corneal Endotheliitis by Cytomegalovirus”, in Herpetic Eye Diseases, J.F. Bergmann Verlag, →ISBN, page 501:

It is well known that in clinical practice the corneae from eyes enucleated for malignant melanoma of posterior choroid are usually utilized for corneal grafting. This research refers to cases of posterior melanomas which extended anteriorly, in which the utilization of the corneae for grafting was doubtful.

1983, A. Loffredo, G. Cennamo, A. De Lellis, A. Sammartino, A. Del Prete, “Echographic Pattern Evaluation of Eyes with Choroid Melanoma for Corneal Graft Utilization”, in Jeffrey S. Hillman, Malcolm M. Le May, editors, Ophthalmic Ultrasonography: Proceedings of the 9th SIDUO Congress, Leeds, U.K. July 20-23, 1982, Dr W. Junk Publishers, Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, →ISBN, page 43:

(anatomy) The transparent layer making up the outermost front part of the eye, covering the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber.


beefy

en-adj

beefy (comparative beefier, superlative beefiest)

beefier (comparative)
beefiest (superlative)

The barman was a big, beefy guy with his sleeves rolled up and tattoos on his arms.

Grumping indignantly, he said, "By ginger, a nice blanky thing to lose a good job and risk being dam' near killed by Peabody for a beefy married woman. I tell you she weighs over fifteen stone, absolutely."

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 82:

The software slows down even a beefy computer.


amaranth

en-noun

amaranth (countable and uncountable, plural amaranths)

Borrowed from French amarante, or directly from its etymon Latin amarantus (the word ending influenced by plant names derived from Ancient Greek ἄνθος (ánthos, “a bloom, blossom, flower”)), from Ancient Greek ἀμάραντος (amárantos, “eternal, undying, unfading, unwilting; amaranth; everlasting flower”) (modern Greek αμάραντος (amárantos)), from ᾰ̓- (ă-, the alpha privativum, a prefix forming words having a sense opposite to the word or stem to which it is attached) + μαραίνω (maraínō, “to shrivel, wither”) + -τος (-tos, suffix forming adjectives).

edible amaranth

Chinese amaranth, Ganges amaranth, willow-leaf amaranth; Amaranthus tricolor

Amaranth, the most common red food colour in both the US and UK, was banned last week in the US after a study suggested that it caused cancer in rats. […] The situation is confused, however, because the test rats were mixed up with the controls in the US tests, and because some tests have indicated hazards while similar tests show the dye to be safe. In April 1975, the joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) gave amaranth temporary approval through 1978.

1976 January 29, “US Bans Commonest Red Food Colour”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 69, number 985, London: New Science Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 234, column 1:

Amaranth is a red azo-dye with the chemical name trisodium 2-hydroxyl-1-(4-sulfonato-1-naphthylazo)naphthalene-3,6-disulfonate […]. Amaranth appears to be relatively unstable in solution and in processed food. Biscuits containing Amaranth showed a loss of 39–45% promoted by the use of baking soda, sucrose, and dextrose. The degradation of Amaranth may lead to the presence of naphthenic acid equivalent to the loss of Amaranth.

2015, J. König, “Food Colour Additives of Synthetic Origin”, in Michael J. Scotter, editor, Colour Additives for Foods and Beverages (Woodhead Publishing Series in Food Science, Technology and Nutrition; no. 279), Amsterdam: Elsevier; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Woodhead Publishing, →ISBN, part 1 (Development and Regulatory Issues for Food Colourings), section 2.2.4 (Amaranth), page 41:

(organic chemistry) A red to purple azo dye used as a biological stain, and in some countries in cosmetics and as a food colouring. See Amaranth (dye).


perse

en-noun

perse (countable and uncountable, plural perses)

From Middle English pers, from Old French, from Medieval Latin persus, back-formed from Persicus (“Persian”), from Ancient Greek Περσικός (Persikós).

A very dark (almost black) purple or blue-gray colour.


perse

Very dark greyish (almost blackish) purple or blue.


perse

en-verb

perse (third-person singular simple present perses, present participle persing, simple past and past participle persed or perst)

perses (present singular third-person)
persing (participle present)
persed (participle past)
persed (past)
perst (participle past)
perst (past)


gustatory

en-adj

gustatory (comparative more gustatory, superlative most gustatory)

more gustatory (comparative)
most gustatory (superlative)

/ˈɡʌstəˌtɔɹi/

/ˈɡʌstətəɹi/

From Latin gustātus, participle of gustō (“to taste”), + -ory.

WHERE TO DINE—Well, Mary Ward, our courageous gustatory investigatress, has finally completed her rounds of the eateries and, with her last despairing effort, dashed off this report on the road houses: […]

1941 June 1, Bill Henry, “By the Way”, in Los Angeles Times, volume LX, Los Angeles, Calif.: Times-Mirror Company, part II, page 1, column 1:


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). 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.


fragrant

fragrant (comparative more fragrant, superlative most fragrant)

more fragrant (comparative)
most fragrant (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin frāgrāns, present active participle of frāgrō (“I smell”).

Sweet-smelling; having a pleasant (usually strong) scent or fragrance.


bifocals

From bi- + focal (see focus), coined in 1824 by John Isaac Hawkins, inventor of trifocals. When the concept of bifocals was originally conceived by Benjamin Franklin, he called them double spectacles.

He unfolded a pair of bifocals and thrust them as far up the bridge of his nose as possible.

2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 116:

Spectacles that have corrective lenses of two different powers; used by people who need both distance and reading glasses.


antiperspirant

en-noun

antiperspirant (countable and uncountable, plural antiperspirants)

(countable, uncountable) A substance used to minimize sweating or perspiration, and usually applied to the underarm area.


deodorant

From Latin de- + odorans, present participle of odorare (“to smell”), from odor (“a smell”); see odor. By surface analysis, de- + odor + -ant.

desodorante

any agent to eliminate, reduce, mask, or control odor

The only apparent difference between Playtex deodorant and nondeodorant tampons was the deodorant, yet the deodorant tampons did not stimulate the production of TSST-1.

1987, Amy C Lee Wong, Factors affecting growth of Staphylococcus aureus and production of toxic shock syndrome-1:

Any agent acting to eliminate, reduce, mask, or control odor.

Banned are newspapers and books, noncotton clothing, after-shave lotions and deodorants, all nonorganic or processed foods[…].

1988 January 22, Robert McClory, “The Yeast of Our Problems”, in Chicago Reader:

An odor-controlling substance applied to the underarm to counteract odor from perspiration.

deodorant

odor-controlling cosmetic for the underarm


deodorant

acting or including an agent to eliminate, reduce, mask, or control odor.


eggplant

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.


aubergine

aubergine (countable and uncountable, plural aubergines)

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

(British, Ireland) An Asian plant, Solanum melongena, cultivated for its edible purple, green, or white ovoid fruit; eggplant.

(British, Ireland) The fruit of this plant, eaten as a vegetable.

aubergine:


blue-black

blue-black:


blue-black

en-adj

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

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