cyanography

Why this word is great

CYANOGRAPHY — [Noun] The art of creating prints using the cyanotype process. From cyano- (derived from Ancient Greek κύανος (kúanos, "dark blue enamel")) + -graphy (from Greek -γραφία (-graphía, "writing" or "representation"), literally meaning "cyan writing" or "blue representation". Unlike "photography" (which captures the full spectrum of light) or "lithography" (which relies on ink and stone), cyanography is a sun-wrought alchemy, reducing the world to its most elemental contrast: white lines on a field of blue. It is the ghostly imprint of a fern pressed against paper, the architectural blueprint fading in an old engineer’s drawer, or the silhouette of a child’s hand held up to the light—each image a fleeting testament to the way we fix the ephemeral into something permanent, if only for a while.