viridescent

[prettygoodword]

viridescent (vir-i-DES-uhnt) - adj., somewhat green; becoming green.


The first growth of spring, and here in the desert some of the riparian trees have that. Dates to the 1840s, from Late Latin viridēscēns, present participle of viridēscere, to become green, from viridis, green.

---L.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

Thanks for the bonus vocabulary word! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riparian_zone

Conditions in my neighborhood in America’s phallic gun butt are brunidescent and growing more so, aside from the determinedly watered lawns; this has been a parched crispy winter of 25-26.

[prettygoodword]

Which gives me a bonus word: brunescent

[full_metal_ox]

Source: my own nether regions and some hasty Latinate Lego-linkage, followed by a Web search; turns out that it’s an extant word (http://www.calflora.net/botanicalnames/botanicalterms.html) and also an ophthalmologic term applied to a particular sort of pigmented cataract (unpleasant medical image warning): https://web.archive.org/web/20180819094004/https://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/eyeforum/atlas/pages/Brunescent-cataract.htm#gsc.tab=0