The
fossilised meaning of maroon may never be excavated. Maroon comes into English
via Italian and medieval Greek, “a large and particularly sweet kind of
chestnut.” Hence, marron glacé. Presumably it’s its colour stuck. “A
brownish-crimson or claret colour,” says the Dictionary, which proves yet again
how colours defy definition. Even pronunciation is indefinite. Aug-ust we say
for the month, au-gust for the adjective. Marr-own or ma-rooooooooooon? 17th-century
descendants of runaway slaves in the West Indies were called maroons, which is
maybe how pirates invented the verb. However, the abandoned derivations of
maroon may never be rescued, stranded in time.
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