marmoreal

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English[edit]

WOTD – 8 September 2023

Etymology[edit]

Michelangelo’s marmoreal (sense 2) statue of David (1501–1504) in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy.

From Latin marmoreus (“of, pertaining to, consisting of or made of marble; resembling marble; adorned with statues”) + English -al (suffix forming adjectives).[1] Marmoreus is derived from marmor (“block or piece of marble; marble building or statue”) (from Ancient Greek μάρμᾰρος (mármaros, “marble”)) + -eus (suffix forming adjectives from nouns).

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

marmoreal (comparative more marmoreal, superlative most marmoreal) (literary)

  1. Resembling marble or a marble statue; cold, smooth, white, etc.; marblelike.
    Synonyms: (obsolete) marmoraceous, (obsolete) marmorean, (obsolete) marmoreous
    • 1798 July, Walter Savage Landor, “Book IV”, in Gebir; a Poem: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxforshire: […] Slatter and Munday; and sold by R. S. Kirby, […], published 1803, →OCLC, page 65:
      How many a night serene, shall I behold / Those warm attractive orbits, close inshrined / In ether, over which Love's column rose / Marmoreal, trophied round with golden hair.
    • 1817 December (indicated as 1818), Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, “Canto First”, in Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century. […], London: […] [F]or Sherwood, Neely, & Jones, […]; and C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […]; by B. M‘Millan, […], →OCLC, stanza XX, page 11:
      [T]he green / And glancing shadows of the sea did play / O'er its marmoreal depth: […]
    • 1869, Robert Browning, “IX. Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius.”, in The Ring and the Book. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., →OCLC, pages 177–178, lines 51–53:
      Each feminine delight of florid lip, / Eyes brimming o'er and brow bowed down with love, / Marmoreal neck and bosom uberous,— […]
    • 1901 December, Edward S[ims] Van Zile, “The Chopin Society”, in Perkins, the Fakeer: A Travesty on Reincarnation […], New York, N.Y., London: The Smart Set Publishing Co., published April 1903, →OCLC, page 246:
      The marmoreal whiteness of her perfect neck and firm, well-rounded arms was emphasized by a sharp contrast. Of color there was none, save for the slight flush of health in her cheeks and the rich, red line of her strong, sensitive mouth.
    • 1932 July, John Buchan, “Mr Reginald Daker”, in The Gap in the Curtain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, section VI, page 217:
      Youth's infinite choice of roads had given place to a rigid groove, presided over by a relentless marmoreal blonde.
    • 1950, Mervyn Peake, chapter 6, in Gormenghast (The Gormenghast Trilogy; II), revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published October 1968, →OCLC, section 6, page 34:
      Irma had collapsed into a chair, and her long marmoreal face was buried in her hands.
    • 1984, Italo Calvino, “[Stories of Love and Loneliness] The Adventure of a Soldier”, in William Weaver, transl., Difficult Loves (A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book), San Diego, Calif., New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, →ISBN, page 188:
      [I]f now the soldier's fingertips, the pads, seemingly endowed with a sudden clairvoyance, could sense through those different stuffs the hems of subterranean garments and even the very minute roughness of skin, pores and moles—if, as I said, his fingertips arrived at this, perhaps her flesh, marmoreal and lazy, was hardly aware that these were, in fact, fingertips, and not for example, nails or knuckles.
    • 1985 September 1, Anthony Burgess, chapter 1, in The Kingdom of the Wicked, London: Allison & Busby, published 2009, →ISBN, page 98:
      The gods, of course, were a quite farcical invention, though necessary for the as it were marmoreal exaltation of the civic virtues.
  3. (obsolete) Made out of marble.
    Synonym: marble

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “marmoreal, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “marmoreal, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

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