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The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.



Monday 21 February 2022

Spot the Frippet: rust.

 A rustbucket used to mean a very old car:

photo by Tyson Hepburn

 but cars don't rust much any more. There's still plenty of rust about, though. It's a mixture of iron and oxygen and it can be very beautiful:

photo by Laitr Keiows

Iron and steel go rusty if they get damp (unless it's stainless steel) and so you probably aren't far from a bit of rusty metal - an old steel can, perhaps, or a radiator that's leaked a little, or an old road sign, or a screw:

photo by User:Paulnasca

And then there's the kind of rust that infects plants, which is a fungus. It makes parts of the plant go rust-brown:

coffee leaf. Photo by Smartse

In fact the word rust can be used of anything the colour of rust, whether it's a carpet or a dog:

photo by tomcue2

Talents and knowledge rust, too. How good is the foreign language you haven'
t spoken since school? Or your current knowledge of your sacred book? Or your ability to play chess?

Never hard to spot rust, is it.

Spot the Frippet: rust. The word was rūst in Old English.



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