fulvous

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 17, 2020 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>fulvous</strong> &#149; \FULL-vus\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> of a dull brownish yellow <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tawny">tawny</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>The dog had an unusual coat of <em>fulvous</em> fur with black and white splotches.</p> <p>"I planned to visit the Pine Barrens to marvel at the <em>fulvous</em> leaves rioting to autumnal frenzy." — <a href="https://issuu.com/independentnewspaper/docs/independent11-15-17">Denis Hamill, <em>The Independent</em> (East Hampton, New York), 15 Nov. 2017</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Fulvous</em> has never been a common word. You are most likely to encounter it in texts from the 19th century—unless, that is, you care about ducks. In that case, you might know about a kind of <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whistling%20duck">whistling-duck</a> called the fulvous <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tree%20duck">tree duck</a>, which is a brownish duck with long legs and a long neck and an unusual world distribution. It lives in isolated populations in North America, South America, India, and Africa—remarkably without geographic variation. But back to <em>fulvous</em>: it shares a meaning with its direct ancestor, the Latin word <em>fulvus</em>, and <em>fulvus</em> itself is believed to possibly share an ancestor with <em>flavus</em>, Latin for "yellow."</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>