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Sep 26, 2005
This week's theme
Words for colors

This week's words
filemot
incarnadine
fuscous
glaucous
taupe

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

Since this newsletter reaches almost all parts of the globe, you may be reading this on a day when there's a torrid sun or a gentle spring breeze. Perhaps you are forced indoors by a drenching monsoon or a frigid snowstorm. But in this part of the world we are celebrating autumn, the season of colors.

As the falling leaves form a feast for the eyes, it is a perfect week to talk about colors. Let's consider some unusual words to describe oranges and browns, grays and blues, and other shades in between.

Interestingly, there's even a color named after the color of dead leaves!

filemot

(FIL-mot) Pronunciation

noun, adjective: The color of a dead or faded leaf: dull brown or yellowish brown.

[From the corruption of the French term feuillemorte, from feuille (leaf) + morte (dead). Ultimately from Indo-European root bhel- (to thrive or bloom) that gave us flower, bleed, bless, foliage, blossom, and blade.]

"The walls were panelled; each panel was comparted like a modern office desk, and each compartment crowded with labelled folios all filemot with age and use."
Lewis Wallace; Ben-Hur; Harper & Brothers; 1880.

X-Bonus

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. -John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704)

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