This week's theme
Toponyms

This week's words
bohemian
damson
Gretna Green
whitehall
rounceval

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(DAM-zuhn, -suhn)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A variety of small plum (Prunus insititia) or its fruit.
2. A dark purple color.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin Prunum Damascenum (plum of Damascus), perhaps because it was first cultivated in Damascus or because it was introduced into Europe from Syria. Two other words coined after Damascus are damask and damascene. Earliest documented use: 1398.

USAGE:

"The mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool that nobody's fathomed the depth of, and paths threaded with flowers planted by the mind."
The Journal of Katherine Mansfield; Knopf; 1927.

"She put a studded denim cropped jacket on over her favourite purple maxi-dress ... An extra slick of damson lip gloss completed the look."
Coleen Nolan; Denial; Macmillan; 2011.

See more usage examples of damson in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: