nigrescent

English

Etymology

From Latin nigrescens, present participle of nigrescere (“to grow black”), from niger (“black”). See negro.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /nɪˈɡɹɛsənt/, /naɪˈɡɹɛsənt/
• Rhymes: -ɛsənt

Adjective

nigrescent (comparative more nigrescent, superlative most nigrescent)

1. Approaching blackness; blackish, dark-coloured. [from 18th c.]
   • 1725, Thesaurus ænigmaticus:

     Pomp of Words Moſt ſplendidly nigrescent

   • 1958, Jefferson Howard Sutton, “Chapter 9”, in First on the Moon‎^[1]:

     At night the temperature is 250 degrees below zero; by day it is the heat of boiling water. Yet the sun is but an intense circle of white aloft in a nigrescent sky.

   • 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter X, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 99:

     [T]he dark death roses came into bloom. I cut them and carried them to Thecla, nigrescent purple flecked with scarlet.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:black

Derived terms

• nigrescence

Related terms

• albescent (“becoming white”), erubescent (“becoming red”), flavescent (“becoming yellow”), virescent (“becoming green”)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “nigrescent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• centerings, centreings

Latin

Verb

nigrēscent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of nigrēscō