 | Your current subscription status is: MyWordaDay Only.
> Did you know Vocab Vitamins Complete is just $16.50/year?
> Subscribe
> Account Settings
To UNSUBSCRIBE, click here and follow the instructions on our simple form.
Fire Escape Partners
3465 25th Street, Suite 17
San Francisco, CA 94110 | (noun)
[VUR-di-grees', VUR-di-gris', VUR-di-gree'] 
1. a green deposit patina of copper carbonates that forms on copper, brass, and bronze exposed to air or sea-water for long periods of time: "The verdigris on the statues, the thick algae on the ponds, the musty humid air all seemed to be the enchantment of some green magic, now regnant over the abandoned estate."
2. a green or blue powder consisting of basic cupric acetate, used as a paint pigment and fungicide
Origin:
Approximately 1300; from Old French, 'vert de Grece': literally, green of Greece (reason unknown). In action:
"In the port, I board the traversier, a hard-working car ferry, which takes 15 minutes to cross to Levis, the city where trains used to deposit carnival celebrants a century ago. On the return trip, as the curved prow of the boat sends cracks racing through sheets of river ice, I see Quebec City from river level. From here, the Chateau Frontenac, a sprawling railway hotel, looks like a clifftop medieval castle surrounded by church steeples, mansard roofs, and verdigris-colored turrets, all cinched tightly by a city-girdling belt of cannon-spiked fortifications. The view is timeless, further evidence that Quebec City has come through nearly four centuries of invasion, renovation, and urban renewal remarkably intact, a fairy-tale European city on North American soil."
Taras Grescoe. "Quebec's Carnival," National Geographic Traveler (October 10, 1995).
"Street life has warmed up with the weather. Teenagers cruise by at night and pause at the corner, their basses sounding the thumping throb of nowhere to go. Some people want us to go away, sings the hip-hop group Frontline. No, aint goin nowhere, we here to stay.
A stone's throw from that corner, a few summers before my diagnosis, an apparition appeared at the chapel of Ave O Maria Immacolata. The Virgin Mary, with cascading hair and flowing robes, showed herself to the faithful on the verdigris gable of the chapel's roof. She came only at night, enveloped in the scent of roses, and disappeared before the morning light. All summer long, carloads of the desperate and the curious quietly climbed the hill at night, where an altar of candles and flowers had been set up on the sidewalk. Though the parish priest warned that 'intangible items' require a rigorous investigation before being recognized by the church, the faith of the parishioners was stronger than reason. It was said that in Mary's presence an 'overwhelming spiritual sense' washed over their bodies like the holy waters of baptism."
Camille Peri. "Prayin' hard for better dayz," [While I battled cancer, I also had to deal with my teenage son's embrace of hip-hop culture.] Salon.com (November 28, 2005).
"Estimated at $30/50,000, the touring car-form vane with a driver was highly detailed with brake and shift levers, a gas pedal and a long bulb-activated air horn. A plaque on the front of the vane was marked 'W.A. Snow Iron Works, Inc.' and it listed a Portland Street address in Boston.
With great patina and traces of the original gilt showing through the overall verdigris surface, the rare vane measured just under 3 feet in length and more than 18 inches tall. As the lot crossed the block, it became the subject of active bidding from the gallery and a host of telephone bidders, with the lot selling at $941,000 to telephone bidders Jerry and Susan Lauren."
David S. Smith. "$941,000 Weathervane Leads Skinner Americana Auction," AntiquesandtheArts.com (December 11, 2007).
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment