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#37945 08/07/01 10:00 PM
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i did a doubletake when i used this word today and atomicized it to check spelling, because it seems reminiscent of adamantine (i hadn't realized that amaranthine means, literally, having the characteristics of an amaranth, which is "any of various annuals of the genus Amaranthus having dense green or reddish clusters of tiny flowers and including several weeds, ornamentals, and food plants.") i'm not entirely sure why this, of all flowers, is heralded as being eternal, but that's not really my query.

i'm wondering if there are other not-so-obvious words that are based upon natural phenomenons, and ending in the -ine suffix.

or perhaps i'm just befuddled today, and my brain is seeing nonexistent connections.


#37946 08/08/01 12:25 AM
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If the amaranth is as hard to kill as pigweed, I can understand a primitive farmer thinking it was immortal, even if it is an annual.It isn't hard to imagine some idiotic poet whose effeminate fingers never had to struggle with it immortalizing it in verse. There are lots of words ending in " -ine " but I can't think of any with poetic possibilities.


#37947 08/08/01 12:58 AM
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incarnadine

Properly, to make flesh-coloured or carnation; but from Shakespeare onward associated with the colour of blood.
1605 Shakes. Macbeth
This my Hand will rather The multitudinous Seas incarnardine, Making the Greene, one Red.



#37948 08/08/01 06:27 PM
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Tourmaline is a gemstone that may be clear or colored.


#37949 08/09/01 03:18 PM
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Tourmaline is a gemstone that may be clear or colored.


Hence, tourmalinine; Capable of being easily or not at all understood, esp. if both at the same time.


#37950 08/09/01 04:40 PM
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:-D

hence, tourmalinization - replacement with an unknown quantity.


#37951 10/18/01 11:42 PM
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How about "margarine"?
[French, from Greek margaron, pearl


#37952 10/19/01 12:54 AM
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How about calcimine, for whitening old ceilings and plaster walls.


#37953 10/19/01 12:55 AM
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Jasmine can mean pale yellow.


#37954 10/19/01 01:02 AM
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Also safranine, a yellow-red aniline dye.


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