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Feb 4, 2011
This week's theme
Words derived from the names of places

This week's words
gasconade
milliner
helot
spartan
verdigris

Verdigris on the Statue of Liberty
Verdigris on the Statue of Liberty
Photo: Video4net

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

verdigris

PRONUNCIATION:
(VUHR-di-grees, -gris, -gree)

MEANING:
noun: A bluish-green patina formed on copper, brass, and bronze when exposed to air or water for a long time.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French verte grez, corruption of vert de Grece (green of Greece). It was earlier used as a pigment by artists. The Greek connection is not clear. Earliest documented use: 1336.

USAGE:
"The time capsule, made of copper, showed the verdigris of age."
Jacqueline L. Urgo; Time Capsule Reveals 1936 Atlantic City; The Philadelphia Inquirer; Jul 14, 2010.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when you were not: that gives us no concern. Why then should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be? To die is only to be as we were before we were born. -William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830)

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