AWADmail Issue 180
October 1, 2005
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Alix Janik (ajwisATdiscover-net.net)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--filemot
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/filemot.html
Duck hunters along the marshy coast of Massachusetts lay on their backs in
sneak boats as they navigated the winding creeks through the dead autumn
grasses. The boats were painted a color named "dead, dry grass", an actual
color named on the paint can. They could have called it filemot.
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From: Malati Shah (malatishahAThotmail.com)
Subject: filemot
Reaching down,
You pick
A bright autumn leaf.
Between thumb and forefinger;
both joy and grief.
These lines being the title of a series of leaf paintings by me inspired
by the colours of a North American autumn.
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From: Tisha King (tisha_kingATprosystemfx.com)
Subject: autumn color words
Just a quick thanks for this week's "autumn colors" theme. I grew up under
a canopy of centuries-old oaks, maples, elms, tulips, and beeches (among
other varieties), in west-central Indiana. The "fall" season involved months
of beauty as, tree by tree, the leaves went through their various rainbows,
before finally falling to the ground. Every autumn, we celebrated by
visiting the circuit of covered bridge festivals, held around many of
the state's old-fashioned covered bridges as the leaves began to change.
I've lived in Kansas since graduating college and while the Great Plains
have their own beauty, "Fall" as I knew it does not exist here. Few trees
grow here naturally (we say our state tree is the Utility Pole), and on
the trees we do plant (and manage to keep alive), "Fall" here lasts no more
than 48 hours. One day the leaves are green, the next day brown, and the
final day, the heavy winds have blown them towards Missouri.
I look forward to the memories of my childhood that this week's words are
certain to conjure!
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From: Meera Narayan (miranarayanAThotmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--filemot
Really to think of colour is to think of India. It is an inescapable and
unavoidable association. Absolutely a feast for the eyes.
One of the most charming places to see colours in mind-blowing range are
the sari shops and especially the famous and gorgeous Kancheepuram saris of
Tamilnadu. I have several times accompanied my Mother and aunts on shopping
expeditions and been extremely thrilled at the colour specifications - women
can be very exacting. When they run out of words, they describe colours and
this is a completely accepted practice as there are colours solely identified
by description!
Some of them have become the word for the colour. The descriptions fire
the imagination and evoke such beautiful and pleasant images. For example,
translated from Tamil mayilkalutthu which quite literally is "the blue of
a peacock's neck". 'Mayil' for peacock and 'kalutthu' for neck. You can hear
women specifiying 'the colour of dawn', 'the colour of a pink rose when it
is in first bud', the color of an onion (which by the way is a colour word -
vengaayam), the colour of honey, the pink of a flamingo, the colour of
twilight, and a strange one called 'heliotrope' (same as the botanical
garden heliotrope- a small purple flower)! Don't be surprised to see a
traditional elderly mami (aunty/dowager) from Madras dripping with diamonds
firmly tell the salesman, "heliotrope with a green border"!
I swear this is true - there is a colour called 'the colour of snot'! :))
I have heard these all delivered without the bat of an eyelid! Additionally,
there is a shade of blue which was popularized by the famous Carnatic music
singer M S Subbulakshmi and the colour came to be called 'MS Blue'! I have
never ceased to be amazed and delighted at the varied and various
descriptions for the exact shade one is looking for.
It is a testament to the expertise of the enterprising salesmen as also
the enterprising weavers that they almost always rise to the occasion and
satisfy the most exacting and excruciating of their customers' desires.
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From: Glenna Jo Christen (gwjchrisATearthlink.net)
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--filemot
A few years ago a clothing historian friend was researching historical
color terms. She shared some of the more entertaining ones, along with
when the term was first popular. I was able to share with her some that
came into popularity in the late 1850s and early 1860s, named for famous
battles of the era, such as Magenta and Solforino. Others she found were
more blatantly political. My favorite was "Dead Spaniard", popular in
England about the time of the Spanish Armada. The actual color is lost
to time, but I can imagine it was not particularly appealing. ;->
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From: Richard Cornelius (richard_corneliusATyahoo.com)
Subject: internationalism
I appreciated your recognition that some who read your messages live
outside the U.S. (vide infra). I live in New Zealand, and am surprised
at how often we are overlooked. (Some of the egregious examples can be
found among the world maps published in Newsweek magazine, which often
omit New Zealand altogether.) I spent the first 55 years of my life in
the U.S. and I must confess an occasional faux pas myself, such as
referring to the season following summer as "fall". New Zealanders use
"autumn", since few leaves here know that they ought to fall.
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From: Wesley Paine (nashvilleathenaATyahoo.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--incarnadine
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/incarnadine.html
This word brought wonderful memories of great rehearsals for Macabeth at
exactly this time last year.
Macbeth, Act II, Scene 2
Macbeth has murdered Duncan and, rattled, comes out still holding the daggers
in his bloody hands. Lady Macbeth is furious with him, tells him to go back
and leave the daggers, and when he refuses, she takes them and returns to
the murder scene, leaving him to jump at every noise:
"Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes!
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red."
Thanks for reminding me of a rare, great word, seldom thought of, much less
used (and as a verb, no less!)!
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From: Joel H. Bailes (jbaiATloc.gov)
Subject: incarnadine
This "flesh-color" (incarnadine) is an easy mistake to make but one that
must be avoided. People have different color flesh.
At the national gallery in Washington DC about 15 years ago a lecturer
referring to a Degas wax ballet figurine now turned nearly black (with age)
said it used to be "flesh-colored". Black museum guards stood listening ten
feet away. I remarked that people have different color flesh. The two old
Jewish (my own persuasion) culture vulture ladies listening jumped on me to
rend me for my presumption but the lecturer, a nice young man from Texas
who knew me, said, [don't kill him] He has a point.
Wouldn't "meat-colored" solve the problem and avoid ambiguity? Have I
demonstrated that "flesh-colored" means "pinkish" in English?
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From: Michael McNamara (michael.mcnamaraATquorumconsulting.com)
Subject: incarnadine
Ever since Crayola had to change its crayon named "flesh" to "peach" (or
whatever the resulting name is), I wondered when things like "flesh-colored"
would pop up as today's word is defined. Flesh comes in many colors, not
one. Maybe the definition should read: raw meat-colored?
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From: Grace Sanchez-MacCall (grace-sanchezATrogers.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--fuscous
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/fuscous.html
If you overcook couscous, does it turn fuscous?
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From: William S. Haubrich, MD (willhaubATaol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--glaucous
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/glaucous.html
The Greek glaukos, descriptive of a silvery green or blue color (such as of
the sea), also gives the medical term "glaucoma" that denotes a condition in
the eye consequent to increased intra-ocular pressure. In untreated, advanced
cases, the degenerate eyeball turns the color so described by the Greeks.
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From: Eric Shackle (eshackleATozemail.com.au)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--incarnadine
Incarnadine would probably be the right word to describe the faces of
dedicated euchre players when they read Natty Bumppo's definition of their
favorite card game. "Euchre is a poor man's bridge," he declares. "Bridge is
for discerners. Chess is for discerners. Euchre is for drunken slobs." Read
about Natty's quirky name and euchre in the October edition of my e-book:
http://bdb.co.za/shackle
............................................................................
To know another language is to have a second soul. -Charlemagne, King of the
Franks (742-814)
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