ungreen
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: ungreens
form: ungreening
form: ungreened
form: ungreened
Etymology: From Middle English ungrene, from Old English ungrēne (“not green”), from Proto-West Germanic *ungrōnī (“not green”), equivalent to un- + green. Compare West Frisian ûngrien (“ungreen”), Dutch ongroen (“ungreen”), German ungrün (“not green”), Danish ugrøn (“ungreen”), Swedish ogrön (“ungreen”), Icelandic ógræn (“ungreen”).
Senses: examples: text: When necessary to air and ungreen, by drawing the pulley the frame rises, and the cloth drains into the vat.
ref: 1854, James Burch Robb, A Collection of Patent Cases Decided in the Supreme and Circuit Courts, from Their Organization to the Year 1850, page 213:
text: After the expiration of this time, suspend a second lock of wool for ten or fifteen minutes in the Vat; when it comes out, it should be of a deeper shade, and more like a grass green than the first lock was: it will take a little over five minutes to ungreen it, when it will assume almost a Middle Blue, with a slight tinge of Green, after it has been exposed to the air for half an hour.
ref: 1861, Richard Gibson, The Art of Dyeing All Colors on Raw Cotton Or Cotton Waste, for the Purpose of Working with Raw Wool, page 206:
text: After each immersion the champignon is lifted out of the vat, and the fabrics are left to ungreen themselves by contact with the air. (It must be observed that, although soluble indigo is called white, because it is without color when carefully prepared in the laboratory, the goods, when first taken from the ordinary vat, are of a green color.)
ref: 1878, John Lord Hayes, Notes Upon Indigo, page 34:
topics: business
dyeing
manufacturing
textiles
glosses: To expose to air after dyeing in indigo so that the greenish color fades away.
examples: text: Freshmen are called greens, and a ceremony was (and perhaps is) used in ungreening them, and admitting them to their full academical privileges.
ref: 1850, Charles Cuthbert Southey, The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey - Volume 5, page 227:
text: The period of “ungreening” is closed by a solemn meeting where the novitiates are addressed by the president of the Corporation.
ref: 1908, The Hartford Seminary Record - Volume 18, page 289:
text: Then the short period of orientation ( “sich oisgreenen" ) to ungreen the greenhorn; to look up landsleit and relatives; to learn a few words of English; to familiarize oneself with the new surroundings and environment;
ref: 1960, Jacob Ralph Schwartz, Orchard Street, page 205:
text: At the turn of the century Yiddish audiences were still greenhorns fighting to "ungreen" themselves .
ref: 1996, Nahma Sandrow, Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater, page 129:
glosses: To make or become familiar with and adept in handling a new environment.
examples: text: Harvests are congratulated She is pleased with the sight, Sweet hard apples and Small ungreening leaves.
ref: 2005, Kevin McGrath, Flyer, page 47:
text: We watched the ungreening of the trees as they put on their fall wardrobes of bright colors.
ref: 2005, Judith Freeland, Try to Remember:
text: For these two weeks every August, the katydid chorus overlaps the buntings' song while the efts crawl up the trail along the river and the breakdown of chlorophyll begins to ungreen the leaves.
ref: 2016, Barbara Hurd, Listening to the Savage: River Notes and Half-heard Melodies, page 86:
glosses: To change from green to some other color, as occurs with leaves in the autumn.
examples: text: John Robinson, in “Highways and Our Environment," complains that the highway system not only has disfigured our countryside by slapping down acres of concrete that threatens to ungreen America, but also carries an increasing number of cars that further befoul the environment by thrusting more pollutants into the air.
ref: 1971, City - Volume 5, page 50:
text: “Socioeconomic threshold” refers to a combination of societal and economic acceptable levels of the six factors to measure purpose accomplishment—in effect, how much “ungreening” would be tolerated by the citizenry before there was a demand for action.
ref: 2004, Gerald Nadler, William Chandon, Smart Questions, page 256:
text: The ungreening world insistently intrudes as natural fact, as cultural locus, and – so pastoral reminds us – as literary tradition.
ref: 2015, Sabine Wilke, German Culture and the Modern Environmental Imagination, page 35:
text: According to Munters, the 'ungreening' of local political power positions was 20 to 30 years behind the 'ungreening' of the rural community population.
ref: 2017, Imre Kovách, Keith Halfacree, Leadership and Local Power in European Rural Development:
glosses: To urbanize or become less environmentally friendly.