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The name of the fruit plum goes back to Old English. During the 18th century, the word plum became a delectable ingredient in the 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. The related adjective plummy blossomed in the early 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 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."
Examples of plummy in a Sentence
Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2024
Rocking smoky eyes or plummy lips (if not both), the Emmy nominees proved that getting sultry on the red carpet is an absolute must.
—Danielle Sinay, Glamour, 16 Sep. 2024
Our florist Lex Hamilton arranged gothic black calla lilies and plummy hydrangeas to festoon the fireplace, and piled up stainless steel coupes loaded with shiny cherries beside flickering pillar candles.
—Katherine Ormerod, Vogue, 6 Aug. 2024
Lightly chilled, this bright, plummy red from Piedmont is mouthwatering and juicy yet structured enough to stand up to pizza or barbecue.
—Anna Lee Iijima, Chicago Tribune, 24 July 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near plummy
Cite this Entry
“Plummy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plummy. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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