Word of the Day

: December 29, 2010

plummy

adjective PLUMM-ee

What It Means

1 a : full of plums

b : choice, desirable

2 a : having a plum color

b : rich and mellow often to the point of affectation

plummy in Context

She got a plummy job as a lifeguard over the summer.

"His impossibly smooth, domed head, chiseled features and plummy voice make him instantly recognizable in the regal, authoritative roles he so often plays." -- From a theater review by Scott Kraft in the Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2010

Did You Know?

During the 18th century the word "plum" became a delectable ingredient in the English language. The word for the sweet, juicy fruit denoted such things as a fortune of 100,000 pounds, a rich person, and, by the early 19th century, anything desirable. "Plummy" blossomed in the mid-18th century with the meaning "full of plums" and had branched out as an adjective for desirable things by the century's end. By the late 19th century it was being used to describe rich, mellow voices. The sweetness of the word did eventually sour, however, when people began to use it to describe stilted or affected speech, as in "the teacher used a plummy voice when he talked to the students' parents."