verdure

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French verdure.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɜːdjə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈvɜːdʒɚ/

Noun

verdure (countable and uncountable, plural verdures)

1. The greenness of lush or growing vegetation; also: the vegetation itself.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare

     […] now he was / The ivy which had hid my princely trunk, / And suck'd my verdure out on't.

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Modern Library Edition (1995), page 142

     The five weeks which she had now passed in Kent had made a great difference in the country, and every day was adding to the verdure of the early trees.

   • 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 1, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:

     To her belonged Amber Spring, the water which gave verdure and beauty to the village and made living possible on that wild purple upland waste.

   • 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth:

     Through the brazen hours that followed high noon, we crept onwards through a tunnel of glittering verdure.

2. (by extension) A condition of health and vigour.

Related terms

• verdant
• verdurous

Translations

greenness, vegetation

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 青菜 (zh) (qīngcài)

• Finnish: vehreys (fi)
• French: verdure (fr) f
• Georgian: სიმწვანე (simc̣vane), მცენარეულობა (mcenareuloba), ფოთლეულობა (potleuloba)
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: зе́лень (ru) f (zélenʹ)
• Spanish: verdor (es) m, vegetación (es) f
• Swedish: grönska (sv) c
• Welsh: gwyrddni m

condition of health and vigour

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: elinvoima (fi), kukoistus (fi), kukkeus (fi)
• French: vigueur (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: friskhet c
• Welsh: hoen f

Verb

1. (transitive) To cover with verdure.

Derived terms

• reverdure

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Dutch

Verb

verdure

1. (deprecated template usage) (archaic) singular present subjunctive of verduren

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French

Etymology

vert +‎ -ure

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɛʁ.dyʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -yʁ

Noun

verdure f (plural verdures)

1. verdure, greenness

Further reading

• “verdure”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ure

Noun

verdure f pl

1. plural of verdura