Word of the Day : June 30, 2019

plummy \PLUMM-ee\ adjective

Definition

1 a : full of plums

b : choice, desirable

2 a : having a plum color

b : rich and mellow often to the point of affectation

Did You Know?

The name of the fruit plum goes back to Old English. During the 18th century, the word plum became a delectable ingredient in the language. The word for the sweet, juicy fruit denoted such things as a fortune of 100,000 pounds, a rich person, and, by the early 19th century, anything desirable. The related adjective plummy blossomed in the early 18th century with the meaning "full of plums" and had branched out as an adjective for desirable things by the century's end. By the 19th century, it was being used to describe rich, mellow voices. The sweetness of the word did eventually sour, however, when people began to use it to describe stilted or affected speech, as in "the teacher used a plummy voice when he talked to the students' parents."

Aired June 30, 2019

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