Pronounced: FOO-zuhl, verb/noun
Notes: You may know this word, especially some people
Yesterday’s word
The word subfuscous means “slightly dark, dusky, or somber”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1700s
Background / Comments
Yesterday, I noted that I had “sort of” run across our word. In the Lord Peter Wimsey story Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers, the word ‘subfusc’ is used – this word has the the same definition as our word. However, it came into English a few years later (clearly, as an abbreviation of our word). I try to look up words that I don’t know, but I don’t remember every looking up that word. Our word comes from the Latin word subfuscus, composed of sub- (slightly; nearly) and fuscus (brownish-gray or dusky color).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 