The Describer's Dictionary: A Treasury of Terms & Literary Quotations by David Grambs Page A
Authors: David Grambs
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guttering, sputtering
showing deflected light rays or distortion of image
refracted, refractive
burning unsteadily or suddenly
flaring, blazing
giving off flame-like light
flickering, wavering, lambent
flame-colored
flammeous
glowing or luminescent with absorbed radiation in a continuing way
phosphorescent
glowing or luminescent with electromagnetic radiation
fluorescent
visible or glowing at night
noctilucent
glowing whitely with light or intense heat
incandescent
giving off a reddish or golden glow
rutilant
having a milky or cloudy iridescence (like an opal)
opalescent, opaline
having a pearly iridescence (like a pearl)
nacreous, pearlescent
transparent
sheer
The earth grows wan and weird, defertilized, dehumanized, neither brown nor gray nor beige nor taupe nor ecru, the no color of death reflecting light, sponging up light with its hard, parched shag and shooting it back at us....
HENRY MILLER, The Colossus of Maroussi
Walls of daffodil yellow are broken by vermillion pylons, purple buttresses appear against rosy domes, and vistas of turquoise blue terminate in great ships’ bows of ultramarine. GUIDEBOOK TO THE NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR, 1939/1940 (AS QUOTED IN HELEN A. HARRISON,
Dawn of a New Day)
At Stenness, only three of an original twelve or thirteen stones survive; but the ruins remain impressive, as much because of the peculiar characteristics of the flagstone as because of the massive size of the slabs. All are more than fifteen feet tall, quite broad, but remarkably slender, one waif-like sheet being less than a foot in thickness. The Brod- gar stones are of the same flagstone; changing colour according to the light, they sometimes seem a pinkish buff, but the hues are spangled with white and lemon lichen blotches, and sometimes a furry, blue-green lichen growth.
RICHARD MUIR, The Stones of Britain
Eventually I identified the rocks. The petrified roses were barite, probably from Oklahoma. The scratchy brown mineral was bauxite—aluminum ore. The black glass was obsidian; the booklet of transparent sheets was mica; the goldeny iridescent handful of soft crystals was chalcopyrite, an ore of copper....
ANNIE DILLARD, An American Childhood
not transparent
untransparent, nontransparent, opaque, adiaphanous,
impervious
admitting the passage of (or letting show through) light
translucent, diaphanous, pellucid, sheer
transparent in water or when wet
hydrophanous
without color
colorless, hueless, achromatic, achromic, untinged
colored
colorful, hued, toned, painted, chromatic, pigmented,
tinctured (dyed or stained)
slightly or weakly colored
tinged, tinted, tinctured
having one color or hue
monochrome, monochromatic, monochromous,
monochromic, monotone
having many colors
many-colored, multicolored, parti-colored, variegated,
motley, varicolored, versicolor, versicolored, polychromatic,
polychrome, polychromic kaleidoscopic, prismatic
rainbow-like
iridescent, iridian
changeable in or showing a shift or play of color
iridescent
highly or brilliantly colored
prismatic
having altered or poor coloration
discolored
The scattered polychrome of the exterior, strewn with blobs and drops as if handfuls of coloured confetti have been thrown at it, evokes the atmosphere of a Venetian carnival with gondolas and crinolines.
LARA VINCA MASINI, audi
The smaller man was looking around, with the air of a child just come to a birthday party—at the clumsy old island schooners tied up at the water’s edge, with red sails furled; at the native women in bright dresses and the black ragged crewmen, bargaining loudly over bananas, coconuts, strange huge brown roots, bags of charcoal, and strings of rainbow-colored fish; at the great square red fort, and at the antique cannons atop its slanted seaward wall, pointing impotently to sea; at the fenced statue of Amerigo Vespucci, almost hidden in purple, orange, and
showing deflected light rays or distortion of image
refracted, refractive
burning unsteadily or suddenly
flaring, blazing
giving off flame-like light
flickering, wavering, lambent
flame-colored
flammeous
glowing or luminescent with absorbed radiation in a continuing way
phosphorescent
glowing or luminescent with electromagnetic radiation
fluorescent
visible or glowing at night
noctilucent
glowing whitely with light or intense heat
incandescent
giving off a reddish or golden glow
rutilant
having a milky or cloudy iridescence (like an opal)
opalescent, opaline
having a pearly iridescence (like a pearl)
nacreous, pearlescent
transparent
sheer
The earth grows wan and weird, defertilized, dehumanized, neither brown nor gray nor beige nor taupe nor ecru, the no color of death reflecting light, sponging up light with its hard, parched shag and shooting it back at us....
HENRY MILLER, The Colossus of Maroussi
Walls of daffodil yellow are broken by vermillion pylons, purple buttresses appear against rosy domes, and vistas of turquoise blue terminate in great ships’ bows of ultramarine. GUIDEBOOK TO THE NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR, 1939/1940 (AS QUOTED IN HELEN A. HARRISON,
Dawn of a New Day)
At Stenness, only three of an original twelve or thirteen stones survive; but the ruins remain impressive, as much because of the peculiar characteristics of the flagstone as because of the massive size of the slabs. All are more than fifteen feet tall, quite broad, but remarkably slender, one waif-like sheet being less than a foot in thickness. The Brod- gar stones are of the same flagstone; changing colour according to the light, they sometimes seem a pinkish buff, but the hues are spangled with white and lemon lichen blotches, and sometimes a furry, blue-green lichen growth.
RICHARD MUIR, The Stones of Britain
Eventually I identified the rocks. The petrified roses were barite, probably from Oklahoma. The scratchy brown mineral was bauxite—aluminum ore. The black glass was obsidian; the booklet of transparent sheets was mica; the goldeny iridescent handful of soft crystals was chalcopyrite, an ore of copper....
ANNIE DILLARD, An American Childhood
not transparent
untransparent, nontransparent, opaque, adiaphanous,
impervious
admitting the passage of (or letting show through) light
translucent, diaphanous, pellucid, sheer
transparent in water or when wet
hydrophanous
without color
colorless, hueless, achromatic, achromic, untinged
colored
colorful, hued, toned, painted, chromatic, pigmented,
tinctured (dyed or stained)
slightly or weakly colored
tinged, tinted, tinctured
having one color or hue
monochrome, monochromatic, monochromous,
monochromic, monotone
having many colors
many-colored, multicolored, parti-colored, variegated,
motley, varicolored, versicolor, versicolored, polychromatic,
polychrome, polychromic kaleidoscopic, prismatic
rainbow-like
iridescent, iridian
changeable in or showing a shift or play of color
iridescent
highly or brilliantly colored
prismatic
having altered or poor coloration
discolored
The scattered polychrome of the exterior, strewn with blobs and drops as if handfuls of coloured confetti have been thrown at it, evokes the atmosphere of a Venetian carnival with gondolas and crinolines.
LARA VINCA MASINI, audi
The smaller man was looking around, with the air of a child just come to a birthday party—at the clumsy old island schooners tied up at the water’s edge, with red sails furled; at the native women in bright dresses and the black ragged crewmen, bargaining loudly over bananas, coconuts, strange huge brown roots, bags of charcoal, and strings of rainbow-colored fish; at the great square red fort, and at the antique cannons atop its slanted seaward wall, pointing impotently to sea; at the fenced statue of Amerigo Vespucci, almost hidden in purple, orange, and
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