Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010585, Sun, 14 Nov 2004 15:09:24 -0800

Subject
Fwd: repeat message, re deadly white
Date
Body


Couldn't "deadly white" be a change on the colour term "dead white"? In
other contexts the color would be pure white or flat white. The words
"dead" and "deadly" are equally proleptic (a word I had to look up) as the
other, but the change catches attention.

OED has under "dead colour" this quotation: The Dead-colouring is the first
or preparatory painting, and is so termed because the colours are laid cold
and pale to admit of the after-paintings.

Mary Krimmel

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