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Oct 9, 2009
This week's themeAutumn colors This week's words ecru russet sorrel umber subfusc 
Students in subfusc at Balliol College, Oxford University
Photo: Piers Nye
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with Anu Gargsubfusc
PRONUNCIATION:
(sub-FUSK)
MEANING:
adjective:
Dark, drab, or gloomy.noun: Dark, formal clothing worn at some universities for exams and special occasions. ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin subfuscus (brownish) sub- (slightly) + fuscus (dark) which also
shows up in the word obfuscate. Also see the color fuscous.
USAGE:
"It darkened at Jil Sander, where Belgian designer Raf Simons produced
clothes for a cloudy summer in deep, subfusc shades."Avril Groom; Bags of Style for Well-heeled; The Australian (Sydney); Oct 1, 2008. "The programme, a rather subfusc combination of Beethoven and Brahms, was traditional." Andrew Clements; Leipzig Go/Chailly; The Guardian (London, UK); Sep 7, 2007. See more usage examples of subfusc in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Plenty of kind, decent, caring people have no religious beliefs, and they act out of the goodness of their hearts. Conversely, plenty of people who profess to be religious, even those who worship regularly, show no particular interest in the world beyond themselves. -John Danforth, priest, ambassador, senator (b. 1936)
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