viridian

English

Etymology

From Latin viridis, from the verb vireo (“to be verdant, to sprout”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪdiən

Noun

viridian (countable and uncountable, plural viridians)

1. A bluish-green pigment made from chromium sesquioxide.
   • 1890, Arthur Herbert Church, chapter 16, in The Chemistry of Paints and Painting‎^[1], 3rd edition, London: Seeley & Co., published 1901, page 195:

     It would be difficult to exaggerate the value of this addition to the artist’s palette. The colour of viridian is a very deep bluish green of great purity and transparency. It furnishes, with aureolin on the one hand and with ultramarine on the other, an immense number of beautiful hues, adapted to represent the colours of vegetation and of water.

2. A bluish-green color.

   viridian:  

Adjective

viridian (comparative more viridian, superlative most viridian)

1. Of a bluish green colour.
   • 1928, Humbert Wolfe, “Spring”, in This Blind Rose‎^[2], London: Victor Gollancz, page 47:

     spring sweeps the wood’s cathedral nave
     with the green fury of a wave,
     till oak and elm and beech and ash
     in one viridian comber crash,
     while at their feet red vetches shine,
     sharp, and cold, and coralline.

   • 1937, Robert Byron, “Bamian”, in The Road to Oxiana‎^[3]:

     We walked out on to a balcony, looking down on the bright green fields, the grey-blue river lined with viridian poplars, and the red earth paths where the peasants were driving their animals […]

See also

• Appendix:Colors