chrysotype means A photograph taken on paper prepared by the use of a sensitive salt of iron and developed by the application of gold chloride. It carries an Arena rating of 1287, earned across 11 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, chrysotype ranks #155 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #1,907 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #3,026 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #4,795 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
Why “chrysotype” is a great word
A photographic print made on paper sensitized with an iron salt and developed using gold chloride, resulting in a purplish-brown image. From the Greek combining form chryso- ("gold") and the suffix -type ("impression, print"), first attested in 1842 by the inventor, Sir John Herschel. Unlike the cyanotype (which employs a parallel chemistry to yield a stark, enduring Prussian blue) or the daguerreotype (which fixes a singular, spectral reflection on a mirrored plate), chrysotype is a process of alchemical translation, where light writes with iron and is revealed in gold. It is the color of a dried autumn leaf held to the light, the deep stain of old wine on linen, and the twilight shadow in the heart of a rose—a gilded impression born from the marriage of iron and gold, a whisper of permanence tinged with the melancholy of rust.
Etymology
From chryso- + -type.
noun
- A photograph taken on paper prepared by the use of a sensitive salt of iron and developed by the application of gold chloride.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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