fuligin

English

Etymology

From Italian fuliggine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfjuːlə.d͡ʒɪn/

Noun

fuligin (uncountable)

1. soot, lampblack.
   • 2013, Stephen Donaldson, The Last Dark. The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant:

     Then the Forestal took the Staff of Law, black as fuligin after her battle - -

2. a hypothetical colour darker than black.
   • 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter VI, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 57:

     “What is the tinct of your own guild?” “Fuligin,” I told him. “The color that is darker than black.”

   • 2001, “Richard Horton” (username), “REVIEW: Vernor Vinge’s ‘Across Realtime’”

     “I'm wearing black only until I find something darker.” — “Fuligin, Mark. Fuligin.”

   • 2003, “Mike Andrews” (username), “hosteurope blackhat?”

     More like fuligin: darker than an event horizon.

Adjective

fuligin (not comparable)

1. fuliginous; sooty or black.
2. of the colour fuligin.
   • 1986, Julia Ecklar, Terminus Est:

     The shadow hovers o’er us, old and long,
     Its power fuligin and vast.