October 5, 2014 Sunday
blog address: Readingthedictionarybackwards.blogspot.com
email: ishmaelish36@blogspot.com
You can find my other blog of pediatric anecdotes, poetry, artwork and literature at ishmaelish36.blogspot.com
literally means forbidden
Rauchen Verboten is a German sign meaning "no smoking"
Interesting (at least to me since I have not formally studied German) is that it is pronounced in German "fer boh' ten" with the first consonant pronounced with a 'f' sound. (You can google a German dictionary on line for this.)
verdant: [Old French vert green]
green in tint; also, unripe in experience or judgement
verdigris: [Old French, literally vert de gris green of Greece]
I pronounce this with out the final 's' sound, as in French, but it can be pronounced \ver dih grees\ a beautiful greenish-blue pigment on copper, brass or bronze
My Freshman year at Princeton, I had arrive a week early and moved into beautiful Cuyler Hall - ivy (of course) creeping up the stately, ancient stone walls overlooking a walled in grass and slate courtyard. As the exuberant students moved in, the upperclassmen started to play frisbee football on the courtyard. One of the Freshman, a diminutive and quiet student, was asked to play. He eagerly and naively jumped into the came, a big smile on his face, went out for a pass, was stripped of the frisbee, pummeled to the ground as the upperclassmen took the frisbee and scored a touch down.
I watched all this with amused amazement from my second story window. My roommate, Corky, and I laughed at this brutal initiation of a Freshman.
He was verdant.
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