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Friday 24 February 2017

Zingiberaceous: Word To Use Today.

I rather suspect this post may be a waste of time: I mean, how could anyone resist using the word zingiberaceous?

Could there possibly be a more magical word? Is there anywhere a word more likely to conjure up cascades of diamonds, singing carrots, sarcastic unicorns, or castles made entirely of strawberry mousse?

The answer to that question, is, plainly, no.

Zingiberaceous!

(The g sounds like the j in joyful.)

If there are those among you who do not believe in magic then I feel sorry for you, but all the same you will probably like to know that the official use of the word zingiberaceous is to describe something to do with plants of the ginger family. 

These include the plants which give us turmeric and cardamom: and, obviously, ginger.

Now, even the least imaginative of us can't deny the culinary magic added to even the humblest of ingredients by ginger, turmeric and cardamom.

Fancy a curry?

That would be absolutely zingiberaceous!

File:Ginger-plant-flower-root.png
image from McCormick and Company


Word To Use Today: zingiberaceous. This word comes from the Latin for ginger, which is zingiber.


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