Why this word is great
VERDANT — [Adjective] Lushly, abundantly green with flourishing vegetation. From Middle French verdoyant ("becoming green"), from Old French verb verdier/verdoier, from vert ("green"), from Vulgar Latin *virdis, from Latin viridis ("green"). Unlike "verdurous" (which can sound merely decorative) or "barren" (its stark, desolate antithesis), verdant asserts a fertile, almost aggressive fecundity. It is the velvet conquest of moss on a sun-dappled stone, the deep chlorophyll shadow beneath an oak canopy, and the overwhelming, rain-fed riot of a meadow in May—a testament to life's silent, persistent triumph in entropy's long campaign.