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VELUTINOUS

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 11:26 pm
by Dr. Goodword
• 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.)

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 11:32 pm
by gailr
ahhh, so those ... science experiments ... in some collegiate refrigerators were velutinous. If only I'd had this word then...

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 4:27 pm
by Perry
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.
My nose isn't plugged up, my nostrils are just overly velutinous.

Re: VELUTINOUS

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 12:51 am
by Stargzer
... All of these forms are descendants of original Latin villus "shaggy hair, nap" ...
I'll lay you odds that Don Imus wished this GWOTD had come out about two months ago ... "Velutinous-haired garden weeders" indeed! :twisted:

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.

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:48 pm
by scw1217
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.

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:06 am
by Stargzer
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.

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:32 am
by scw1217
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.
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. :lol:

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:34 am
by skinem
We grill okra down here, and, of course, fry it. But none boiled for me, please...it's too velutinous even then for me!

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:50 pm
by Perry
One version of the Kurdish/Iraqi standby dish, kubbah, is made with okra in the tomato sauce.