With a Chicago newspaper yesterday boasting of a temperature which had risen to 70 degrees for the first time within six months, our word for today, folks, is green.

It sounds such a simple word, yet when studied further, it's really quite complex. It's origin is, again, Old English, grene (noun) and grenian (verb). The English word is said to be of Germanic origin, related to the German grun and the Dutch, groen.

It's the color of summer. My grass is green, my trees green-leafed. In fact, I live in an area with wide lawns and numerous trees. So much so that one of my guests once opened my front door, looked out, and exclaimed, "Good grief. It's so green here!" (She is a dedicated city dweller).

But green applies to much more than simply color. One can be green in the ways of the world, meaning naive and gullible. Its signal at an intsection, indicates it's time to floor the gas or tells us in other areas of life that it's time to proceed with whatever plans we've laid. It's often even used to denote safe, beginner runs on ski slopes.

At times it's been used to indicate money, as in folding green, although that use is said to be dated now. Even Physics comes into play, with it identifying one of the three colors of quark. 

I could go on and on with the various ways the word is used. In fact, we're still at it, shaving its meaning and applying it to our present world with today's very popular concept of Green living, be it in housing, food production, or energy alternatives. 

So there it is. Green. A very good and useful word!

Best wishes,

Anna Drake