viridian

plural viridians

1. countableuncountableA bluish-green pigment made from chromium sesquioxide.

   Then Miss Sloviak emerged from the ladies' room, hair reestablished, cheeks rouged, eyelids freshly painted a soft viridian, smelling of what I recognised as Cristalle, the fragrance worn both by my wife, Emily, and also by my lover, Sara Gaskell.

   1995, Michael Chabon, Wonder Boys, Ch.1, at p.16

   1 more example

   It would be difficult to exaggerate the value of this addition to the artist’s palette. The colour of viridian is a very deep bluish green of great purity and transparency. It furnishes, with aureolin on the one hand and with ultramarine on the other, an immense number of beautiful hues, adapted to represent the colours of vegetation and of water.

   1890, Arthur Herbert Church, chapter 16, in The Chemistry of Paints and Painting, 3rd edition, London: Seeley & Co., published 1901, page 195

   Synonyms: Mittler's green

2. countableuncountableA bluish-green color.

comparative more viridian · superlative most viridian

1. Of a bluish green colour.

   We walked out on to a balcony, looking down on the bright green fields, the grey-blue river lined with viridian poplars, and the red earth paths where the peasants were driving their animals […]

   1937, Robert Byron, “Bamian”, in The Road to Oxiana

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   spring sweeps the wood’s cathedral nave with the green fury of a wave, till oak and elm and beech and ash in one viridian comber crash, while at their feet red vetches shine, sharp, and cold, and coralline.

   1928, Humbert Wolfe, “Spring”, in This Blind Rose, London: Victor Gollancz, page 47