Pronounced: KUHM-shaw, noun
Notes: Not a word that I recognize
Yesterday’s word
The word damson is
- a variety of small plum or its fruit
- a dark purple color
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1300s
Background / Comments
I have run across this in either the writing of Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers, and I think the latter one, in the phrase “damson wine”. I knew from the context it referred to a homemade wine, but I was thinking it was some kind of a flower, as in “dandelion wine”. Our word came from the Latin word Prunum Damascenum (plum of Damascus); it is not clear if the plum was first cultivated in Damascus, or just introduced into Europe from Syria. Another word that came from Damascus is “damask”.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 