5 March 2017
damson
[dam-zuh n, -suh n]
noun
1. Also called damson plum. the small, dark-blue or purple fruit of a plum, Prunus insititia, of the rose family, introduced into Europe from Asia Minor.
2. a medium to dark violet.
adjective
3. of the color damson.
Origin of damson
Middle English, Latin
1350-1400; Middle English damascene, damson; Latin (prūnum) Damascēnum (plum) of Damascus; see Damascene
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for damson
Historical Examples
The damson, a small plum, may be safely classed with the Prunus Communis.
The Book of Pears and Plums
Edward Bartrum
It was damson preserve Mrs. Smalley had for supper last night.
Shavings
Joseph C. Lincoln
If it ain’t plum an’ apple, it’s damson an’ apple, which is jest the same only there’s more stones in it.
Mud and Khaki
Vernon Bartlett
There is a third sort of Plum about the Bigness of the damson.
A New Voyage to Carolina
John Lawson
The damson coloured it, and whatever they used for apple gave it body.
Five Months at Anzac
Joseph Lievesley Beeston
These, and the mulberry, are the most common; next are the bullace and damson.
Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The
William Griffith
My heart is fair broken to think o’ the cook and Eelen Young makin’ a hash of the apple jeely and the damson jam.
Patsy
S. R. Crockett
So Adelaide washed the damson plums carefully, and with a silver knife slit each one before putting them into the saucepan.
A Little Preserving Book for a Little Girl
Amy Waterman
Fruit trees—apple, plum, and damson —were planted; also some roses.
Hodge and His Masters
Richard Jefferies
The damson plums Adelaide wiped thoroughly, and pricked each one with a silver fork twice.
A Little Preserving Book for a Little Girl
Amy Waterman
Anagram
nomads
damn so
No dams
Today’s quote
You know great things are coming when everything seems to be going wrong. Old energy is clearing out for new energy to enter.
– Idil Ahmed
On this day
5 March 1946 – The term ‘Iron Curtain’ to describe the Soviet Union and Communist Europe, is coined in a speech by Winston Churchill.
5 March 1953 – USSR leader Joseph Stalin died at his dacha at Kuntseva,15km west of Moscow, following a stroke three days earlier. An autopsy suggested he may have died from ingesting warfarin, a rat poison which thins the blood, and that this may have caused the cerebral hemorrhage. The warfarin may have been added to his food by Deputy Premier Beria and Nikita Khrushchev. It was later revealed by former Politburo member, Vyacheslav Molotov in his 1993 memoirs that Beria had boasted of poisoning Stalin. Born 18 December 1878.