Saturday, April 27, 2013

A to Z Challenge 2013: X - Xanthous

Xanthous

xan·thous [zænθəs] adj. Of the color intermediate between green and orange in the color spectrum; of something resembling the color of an egg yolk.

Synonyms: yellow, yellowish

Etymology: 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."

Man, there are seriously very few words that start with X that have interesting etymologies. Enjoy your day off!

15 comments:

Unknown said...

x is a difficult letter.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I just had to name some for Nick Wilford's ongoing story and there are maybe thirty-five words in the dictionary beginning with X.

mshatch said...

This word is new to me :)

farawayeyes said...

And you managed to find one that I didn't know.

Anonymous said...

I have never heard of this word before but well done on a good post for X,
Yvonne.

Unknown said...

Wow, I almost did xanthus today, not kidding...I went with xiphias instead! Lacey on Latin Words:-)

Sheena-kay Graham said...

You and Nancy LaRonda Johnson practically picked the same word today. Cool coincidence. I'm doing Xenophobia. I think like 50% of people are doing X-Men.

Sally said...

Another new word for me as well.

Susan Kane said...

That color will never find its way into a box of Crayola 64.

Andrew Leon said...

I had forgotten all about this word. I probably haven't used it since high school biology.

Krista McLaughlin said...

I have to agree with Susan - I doubt this will make it into a box of crayons. :)

Carrie-Anne said...

I love this word, and the other words of Greek origin with the xanth- root. One of my favorite fancy words for blonde is xanthochroid, since I discovered it in the thesaurus at age twelve. The Greek name Xanthe, which means "blonde," is also a favorite name. X is one of my favoritest letters, period.

Jemima Pett said...

That's a lovely word. I shall try to use it often!
Thanks for your work on the A to Z Challenge - just using today to get round people not in line of fire from the upper reaches of the list!
Jemima at Jemima's blog

Donna K. Weaver said...

Funny. I was reading one of my grandsons a kids alphabet book that had this word for X.

Tina said...

Makes me think of xanthum gum or however that thickening agent is spelled...and also of what happens when you try to make deviled eggs and get that hideous green ring around the yolk cuz you overboiled them. Hmmm...might have to go make some. Suddenly craving deviled eggs!
Tina @ Life is Good