Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Word of the Day -- Cerulean

We often hear of this word in conjunction with the word "blue", as in "the sky was a cerulean blue".  But it's one of those words that really is hard to describe in and of itself.  If you say blue, you ask: "what kind of blue?" Then when you say "cerulean blue", unless you happen to know the word cerulean, it just doesn't connect.  The actual definition of cerulean is "resembling the blue of the sky" but that doesn't really help either because the sky can be many shades of blue on any given day.  Further research shows that it comes from the Latin word caeruleus, meaning dark blue, blue-green. Caeruleus comes from caerulum, meaning heaven or sky.  Frankly it's one of those words that is best defined by a picture:

When you see the color, you just go, "ah...cerulean blue". But if you're like me, the definition is rather lacking.  So the next time you are looking at the sky with your date, impress them.  Use cerulean to describe it.  Just hope they don't ask you for the definition.  If they do, just point at the sky and say: "That's cerulean, it's heavenly, just like your face." And if they don't roll their eyes at you, then you've got a good chance at some romance... :-)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It always makes me think of X-Files.

--Jeff

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