Even at the time this seemed perverse, when it was quite clear from his name that he was a depressive, self-pitying, flatulent - and the colour of sludge.
It wasn't until...oooh, about thirty seconds ago...that I Googled gamboge and discovered to my amazement that actually I LOVE gamboge.
It's this colour:
And, good grief, this whole blog is adorned with a colour very like it.
But of course that just makes the word gamboge even nastier: a grubby, sullen word which masks something joyful and sunny.
I would say don't use it - except, on reflection, it occurs to me that no one ever does.
So, that's all right, then.
Word Not To Start Using Today: gamboge. Gamboge is a sort of resin that you get from a gamboge tree. You use it to make lovely bright yellow paint. One of the places you find gamboge trees is Cambodia, and the word gamboge is a rather bruised version of that.
I too never knew it was that nice sunny colour. I actually love the WORD itself and think it is rather distinguished but then I've been saying it as though it were French...always a help when it comes to making words seem nicer than they are But Hurray for Gamboge. Now that sounds like a political slogan and I can imagine Gamboge. He has epaulettes...another word for the Den.
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