Word of the Day: Xanthous
Okay, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a word beginning with X that is either a preposition, a conjunction, or an interjection?! Yikes! Oops, that’s tomorrow.
Seriously, I had a hard time finding a word to use, and then I stumbled across xanthous and now I’m kind of crushing on it. Why? Because it’s a super cool way of saying yellow. So, even though it’s not a preposition, or conjunction, or interjection, it’s an awesome word, and still not a noun or a verb. Booyah! Aaaand bonus points for being an epic way of saying my favorite color. That’s like the 2 pt conversion on the extra point after touchdown!
Xanthrochroi also sounds much more elegant than pasty-faced white girl, too. I was a towhead when I was a girl. Never understood that, either. Where exactly did that word come from? I always wondered why people said my head was like feet, but I guess that’s another post for another day. Back to xanthous!
adj. 1829, from Greek xanthos “yellow,” of unknown origin. Prefix form xantho- is used in many scientific words; cf. xanthein (1857) “soluble yellow coloring matter in flowers,” Huxley’s Xanthochroi (1867) “blond, light-skinned races of Europe” (with okhros “pale”), xanthophyll (1838) “yellow coloring matter in autumn leaves.”
The yellow coloring in autumn leaves, the yellow coloring in flowers, tell me why have I never heard of this word before? I’m staring at a monitor that’s exploding with bright yellow tulips as I write this, and I can’t figure out how come Xanthous or some derivative wasn’t in my Crayola box when I was a kid. Well, you can be sure my kids will learn about it!
Some lovely xanthous roses my husband got me one year for my birthday.
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