Tee-hee. Hamish Macdouall just used the word “nacreous” in his Googlies & Grass Stains blog on Stuff. I venture it is the first time that word has appeared on Stuff ever, and that it wouldn’t have sneaked past a Dom-Post sub if it was going in the dead-tree edition. It’s rare that anyone these days uses a word with which I am unfamiliar but this was one I had to check. And the first definition offered by Google (via Merriam-Webster) is spectacularly unhelpful:
: possessing the qualities of, consisting of, or abounding in nacre ;
Well, yes, obviously.
A lovely word. I know it mostly from so-called nacreous clouds, but I also remember reading about the design for the Marine Education Centre using a nacreous cladding for one of its walls.
Good grief man – nacre. Mother of Pearl. From which: nacreous – like to Mother of Pearl.
It’s also little-known that we also get “nacred” from the same root word, and that the expression was originally “Nacred as a Blue-Jay” – referring to the pearly underbelly of said bird.
I once saw the Queen Mother nacred as a Blue Jay. Pearl in your foul oyster, sir. Pearl in your foul oyster.
Something to do with oysters I believe.