A.Word.A.Day --castaneous

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Sep 18, 2023

This week’s theme
Words related to colors

This week’s words
castaneous
rubricate
cerulean
brunneous
variegate

Photo: Pexels / Freerange Stock

Previous week’s theme
Words related to time

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

In his unfinished novel Billy Budd, Sailor, Herman Melville wrote:

Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity.

Sanity and insanity, Melville knew something about that. In another of his novels, Moby-Dick, he depicted the insane Captain Ahab so well. Ahab destroyed everything in his obsession with the white whale, including the people around him. The whole ship.

Like the blurry line between sanity and insanity, who in the world these days could have drawn the line where fiction ends and real life begins?

Melville’s character was naturally tanned; his latter-day counterpart come to life is spray painted in a fake orange tint. This former captain is willing to destroy everything in his obsession with the White House. So many around him have already paid for it, so many are going to pay for it, yet so many haven’t learned the lesson yet. In his mad fixation, this man is willing to sink the whole ship too.

Here’s hoping The Former Guy and his ilk fail in their quest for a monochrome nation. A colorful world is much more vibrant and rich. This week we fill your world with colors. We’ll see five uncommon words related to colors and shades (No orange!).

castaneous

PRONUNCIATION:

(ka-STAY-nee-uhs)

MEANING:

adjective: Deep reddish-brown.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin castanea (chestnut). Earliest documented use: 1688.

USAGE:

“Her large castaneous eyes were intensified by kohl and mascara.”
Sasha Mirage; Fatal Aroma; AuthorHouse; 2011.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

[Film and theater critic John] Simon has simply discovered the trick used with great effectiveness by certain comedians, talk show hosts and punk rock musicians: people of modest talent can attract attention, at least for a while, by being unrelentingly offensive. -Steven Pinker, author and psychology professor (b. 18 Sep 1954)

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