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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Word... Friday.

Fustian

n.

1.
a. A coarse sturdy cloth made of cotton and flax.
b. Any of several thick twilled cotton fabrics, such as corduroy, having a short nap.
2. Pretentious speech or writing; pompous language.

adj.

1. Made of or as if of fustian
2. Pompous, bombastic, and ranting


~Free Online Dictionary

Photobucket
Nothing to do with the word, but it was a lucky picture the other day. Anybody know what this odd rectangular beetle is?

Most of the new words I learn come from trawling dictionaries, but this one I learned from literature.

"A thief in fustian is a vulgar character, scarcely to be thought of by persons of refinement; but dress him in green velvet, with a high-crowned hat, and change the scene of his operations, from a thickly peopled city to a mountain road, and you shall find in him the very soul of poetry and adventure."
~Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens

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