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prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2025-03-10 07:13 am

vernal

Theme week! -- seasonal adjectives, starting with:


vernal (VUR-nl) - adj., related to or occurring in spring; having characteristics like spring, such as fresh, young, youthful.


This is rare outside of technical contexts, such as the upcoming vernal equinox, but I still see it sometimes in that extended metaphorical use. Taken around 1530 from Latin vērnālis, pertaining to spring, from vēr, season of spring (ultimately from PIE root *wósr̥/*wesr̥, spring (and how's that for a diacritic on that r̥?)) + a pertaining-to adjectival suffix. And to console those of you who just observed the North American vernal time-shift, here's some vernal sakura to gaze upon:

sherry blossoms in spring, in Kamakura
Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.

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