Dictionary

nigrescent en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /naɪˈɡɹɛsənt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /nɪˈɡɹɛsənt/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From Latin nigrescens, present participle of nigrescere (“to grow black”), from niger (“black”). By surface analysis, Latin nigr(ēre) + -escent. See negro.

Meanings

1. Approaching blackness; blackish, dark-coloured.
   • At night the temperature is 250 degrees below zero; by day it is the heat of boiling water. Yet the sun is but an intense circle of white aloft in a nigrescent sky. 1958, Jefferson Howard Sutton, “Chapter 9”, in First on the Moon:
   • Pomp of Words Moſt ſplendidly nigrescent 1725, Thesaurus ænigmaticus:
   • [T]he dark death roses came into bloom. I cut them and carried them to Thecla, nigrescent purple flecked with scarlet. 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter X, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 99:

Forms

Deriveds

nigrescence

Relateds

virescent · albescent · erubescent · flavescent

Synonyms

black