• velutinous •
Pronunciation: vê-lut-ên-ês • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Velvety, covered with a fine, soft, silky fiber.
Notes: Today's Good Word is one that botanists have been hiding from us for centuries; it is most frequently used to refer to stems, calyxes, and seeds of plants that are fuzzy. For example, at the right you see the velutinous seeds of the soybean. If you have wisteria growing in your yard, you have probably noticed its velutinous seeds in the (North American) fall. The rarity of the word has precluded it from much derivation though, should you ever need a noun, either velutinousness or velutinosity will work.
In Play: We come in contact with velutinous vegetation all the time: "I never eat okra because I find all velutinous vegetables repulsive, even when cooked." The question is, of course, do we need velutinous when we already have velvety: "Miranda's velutinous forearm glittered in fiery scintillae as the sun retreated behind it." I don't know. What do you think?
Word History: Today's Good Word, as you probably have already noticed, is a modest makeover of New Latin velutinus with the same meaning. The Latin adjective comes from velutum "velvet", probably from a Vulgar (street) Latin word villutus with two Ls that didn't survive in a written document we can find today. Middle English also had a form veluet "velvet", probably from an Old Provençal variant of villutus, that became today's velvet. All of these forms are descendants of original Latin villus "shaggy hair, nap", a word botanists and zoologists use to refer to fine tendrils or hairs that grow inside and outside organisms. (Today we thank Dr. Lew Jury for leading this gentle word out of musty old botany books and into the light of the general vocabulary.)
VELUTINOUS
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VELUTINOUS
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My nose isn't plugged up, my nostrils are just overly velutinous.All of these forms are descendants of original Latin villus "shaggy hair, nap", a word botanists and zoologists use to refer to fine tendrils or hairs that grow inside and outside organisms.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: VELUTINOUS
I'll lay you odds that Don Imus wished this GWOTD had come out about two months ago ... "Velutinous-haired garden weeders" indeed!... All of these forms are descendants of original Latin villus "shaggy hair, nap" ...
Ah, well, he's not only too bent over, he's too stoop-ed to read the Agora ... and Lord knows what he'll stoop to next.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
Speaking of okra...I was once asked by a Canadian friend to describe okra as she had never had any. After giving it some thought I said, "a fuzzy green bean". How I wish I'd had this word instead! My further advice to her was to try it fried first, boiled okra being for a true connoisseur.
Suzanne D. Williams, Author
http://www.feelgoodromance.com
http://www.feelgoodromance.com
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Oh, yeah! Fried or in a gumbo. On Barbeque University the other day ( www.bbqu.net ) the host made grilled okra pops. Cut the stem end off, stick in a bamboo skewer, and grill. Put a piece of foil on the grill under the skewers to keep them from burning. I think he may have brushed them with a little butter and salt-and-pepper. Sounded gooooooooood!
I couldn't find the recipe on his web site, but did find a similar one, which doesn't describe the pops.
I couldn't find the recipe on his web site, but did find a similar one, which doesn't describe the pops.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
An interesting idea. I'd try it but am presently unsure just how that'd go down. The "slime factor" is the appeal to boiled okra. It just slips right down one's "craw", to use a good ol' southern word.Oh, yeah! Fried or in a gumbo. On Barbeque University the other day ( www.bbqu.net ) the host made grilled okra pops. Cut the stem end off, stick in a bamboo skewer, and grill. Put a piece of foil on the grill under the skewers to keep them from burning. I think he may have brushed them with a little butter and salt-and-pepper. Sounded gooooooooood!
I couldn't find the recipe on his web site, but did find a similar one, which doesn't describe the pops.
Suzanne D. Williams, Author
http://www.feelgoodromance.com
http://www.feelgoodromance.com
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