Word of the Day Archive
Saturday July 3, 1999
verdant \VUR-dnt\
, adjective:
1. Green with vegetation; covered with green growth.
2. Green.
3. Lacking experience or sophistication; naive.
Drab in winter, then suddenly sodden with alpine runoff, the region turns dazzlingly verdant in spring.
-- Patricia Albers, Shadows, Fire, Snow
Dry as the region just outside the delta may be, it would still be covered with grasses, yellowish in the dry season, verdant in the wet.
-- Niles Eldredge, Life in the Balance
I was verdant enough to think her Agrippine very fine.
-- Henry James, "The Théâtre Français"
Verdant comes from French verdoyant, present participle of verdoyer, "to be verdant, to grow green," from Old French verdoier, verdeier, from verd, vert, "green," from Latin viridis, "green," from virere, "to be green."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for verdant
