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Rubescent

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 11:53 pm
by Dr. Goodword

• rubescent •

Pronunciation: ru-bes-ênt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Turning red, becoming red, reddening.

Notes: We have a few other words with the sense of "becoming": senescent "becoming old", liquescent "becoming liquid", evanescent "becoming invisible", but all are rarely used. These words are too lovely to be left by the wayside, so let's decprate our speech with them. Today's word has a noun, rubescence, and adverb, rubescently.

In Play: Although it is often used as a more impressive synonym for red, this word should be used only in referring to things arriving at a state of redness: "Hetty Wein's face was rubescent from the bottle of Merlot she and Horace were sipping by the fireplace." It is a lovely word that should be worked into descriptions of things of beauty at every opportunity: "Dewey Rose enjoyed those long summer evenings in his garden beneath a rubescent sky."

Word History: Words ending on -ent and -ant in English come from present participles of either French or Latin verbs. Present participles are forms like English running (water) and falling (rain). Today's word comes from rubescen(t)s "reddening", the present participle of the Latin verb rubescere "to redden". The root of this word, ruber or rubeus "red", is closely related to robus "red oak", which led to English robust. French inherited rubeus from Latin and converted it to rouge "red", borrowed by English as, well, you know what. (Our faces would be rubescent if we forgot to thank Lew Jury for suggesting this blushingly lovely word for today.)

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:49 pm
by bamaboy56
What an attractive word! I can't wait to use this in a sentence the next time I'm around my fellow minions. There's one coworker in particular who turns rubescent easily and often. :D

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 10:07 pm
by Philip Hudson
bamaboy: I agree that rubescent is a beautiful word. It should be next on the Good Doctor's beautiful word list. Go easy on the coworker that goes rubescent. Also, rejoice that some people can still blush. I write some fact-based fiction. This isn't Spam; my work is not for sale. I knew a lovely girl who, as a teen, we called Ruby Red. Her name was Ruby and she was rubescent. I have fictionalized her biography. I think no one has ever gotten a single blush out of me although I probably should have blushed on several occasions.

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 10:36 pm
by bamaboy56
Agreed. I really like my rubescent coworker and will never embarass her just to see her blush. I respect her too much to do that. Having said that, she blushes easily which only enhances her charm. :D