Piceous
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Of or pertaining to pitch (“a sticky, dark brown substance obtained from distilling turpentine or wood tar, or crude oil or tar”); having a quality like pitch. obsolete, rare
"I do not therefore require of you to believe, that the ancient rocks and compact bodies were diſſolved, but that many new ones were formed by the deluge, which had incloſed the ſpoils of the ſea within them. […] What other rational account will you give of that ſhell of a nautilus, which was found buried in a ſtratum of a piceous ſubstance below the bed of the river Arbis, where Artaxerxes commanded a bridge to be built over it?"
- 2 Resembling pitch in colour; a very dark brown.
"Piciroſtris. Oblong, black: ſilvery-ſilky: ſnout half way and legs piceous."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"I do not therefore require of you to believe, that the ancient rocks and compact bodies were diſſolved, but that many new ones were formed by the deluge, which had incloſed the ſpoils of the ſea within them. […] What other rational account will you give of that ſhell of a nautilus, which was found buried in a ſtratum of a piceous ſubstance below the bed of the river Arbis, where Artaxerxes commanded a bridge to be built over it?"
Etymology
From Latin piceus (“like pitch; pitch-black”) + -ous (suffix forming adjectives denoting possession or presence of a quality). Piceus is derived from pix (“pitch, tar”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peyH- (“fat; milk”)) + -eus (suffix forming adjectives indicating the sources of attributes). The English word is cognate with Italian piceo (“like pitch; of a dark brown colour”), Spanish piceo (“like pitch; of a dark brown colour”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.