Friday, October 8, 2010

Help Needed: Black

My plan for green was MALACHITE, but Chris came up with GUACAMOLE and that sounds terrifically fun! I'm still leaning towards MALACHITE, but GUACAMOLE is tempting... particularly because I love Guacamole.

You all give me such great ideas... here's your chance...

for WHITE, I will be using the word ALABASTER.

But I am still waffling about my selection for BLACK. I had settled on GYRFALCON, except that I have to keep explaining it.

Turquoise is a blue stone
Augergine is the French word for eggplant
Vermilion is a red pigment
Persimmon is an orange colored fruit
Goldenrod is a yellow flower
Malachite is a green stone (Guacamole is a green food)
Alabaster is a whitish stone

I need a nine-letter word for something BLACK, but it can't have the word BLACK in it. It doesn't have to be brain-dead obvious, it should actually be a little bit obscure.

You know, Serendipity is a wonderful thing... I just thought of the famous Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks, (bigger image here.)

Can you come up with something?

18 comments:

Karen said...

You said obscure was okay, so try this. In Australia, years ago, we used to burn compressed blocks of coal. Each block was called a BRIQUETTE. We also have a deadly black spider called a FUNNELWEB. Good luck finding your word!

Clare said...

I was going to suggest Anthracite, but it's one letter too long. I like briquette (I think it's a French word) but it reminds me too much of BBQ's.

How about LIQUORICE or PITCH DARK (two words - sorry - but still 9 letters).

Cyndi loves to stitch said...

I like the word guacamole, but when I think of the color it represents, pales in comparison to malachite. If you had wanted to use a food, aparagus was a good COLOR. will be thinking about black.

Millie said...

Clare, I -LOVE- LIQUORICE.. but I think it's more properly spelled LICORICE, which is 8 letters..

Two words are not allowed.

Joyce said...

Too bad bituminous has ten letters.
How about nocturnal? BTW, I cheated and used an online thesaurus.

Hannah and Lucy said...

What about ebony wood if that's black enough.

lindaroo said...

Ooh, I love the british liquorice, too! Why not, since you have the french aubergine?

sophie said...

I like liquorice, too ... for another (bit more obscure) option, how about cimmerian?

The Selvage Fairy said...

Since this is about letters, a "q" would be a nice addition.
Mr. SF and I vote for liquorice too. He says Hi by the way.

Tucker! said...

Midnight?

Obsidian?

Tucker! said...

MILKBONES!

Quiltdivajulie said...

Smoky Onxy

DKM said...

Cormorant
Panthères

Anonymous said...

obsidian

Susan D.

3anklebiters said...

my thesaurus lists the word nefarious as a synonym for black (adj.). it's a fun word to say.

Anonymous said...

How about eight ball? 2 words, but i like the image.

Clare said...

Yes, but if you spelt it the European way, rather than the American, it would work. I talso goes with the rest of the words. Well, I think so anyway :-)

Mary said...

What about nighttime? Not very obscure. How about simmental? That is the breed of cattle my husband raises, and they are almost always black.