ruddy

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The Word of the Day for March 15 is:

ruddy   \RUDD-ee\   adjective
    *1 : having a healthy reddish color
     2 : red, reddish
     3 British -- used as an intensive

Example sentence:
     "I noticed a man who looked like a gentleman farmer...; he had a
broad back and round shoulders, a kind, ruddy face, and he wore a
broad-brimmed hat." (Anna Sewell, _Black Beauty_)

Did you know?
     In Old English, there were two words meaning "red": "read" and
"rudu." "Read" evolved into our present-day "red." "Rudu" evolved
into "rud" (a word now encountered only in dialect or archaic usage)
and "ruddy." Most often, "ruddy" is applied to the face when it has
the red glow of good health or is red from a suffusion of blood from
exercise or excitement. It is also used in the names of some birds,
such as the American ruddy duck. In British English, "ruddy" is
sometimes used as a colorful euphemism for the intensive "bloody," as
English writer Sir Kingsley Amis illustrates in _The Riverside Villas
Murder_: "Ruddy marvelous, the way these coppers' minds work.... I
take a swing at Chris Inman in public means I probably done him in."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.





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