plummy
English
Etymology
plum + -y. In the sense of a voice, because of the supposed similarity to speaking with a plum in one's mouth.
Pronunciation
- enPR: plŭmʹē, IPA(key): /ˈplʌmi/
- Rhymes: -ʌmi
Adjective
plummy (comparative plummier, superlative plummiest)
- Of, pertaining to, containing, or characteristic of plums
- (informal) desirable; profitable; advantageous
- 1876, George Eliot, chapter 16, in Daniel Deronda:
- The poets have made tragedies enough about signing one's self over to wickedness for the sake of getting something plummy; I shall write a tragedy of a fellow who signed himself over to be good, and was uncomfortable ever after.
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- (of a voice) rich, mellow and carefully articulated, especially with an upper-class accent
- 1948, Michael Glenne, Catherine Howard: The Story of Henry VIII's Fifth Queen, page 137:
- Then, feeling the fat hands caressing her reluctant bosom, listening dutifully to the rich, plummy voice, she realized finally what marriage to the King meant.
- 1968, Harry John Mooney, Thomas F. Staley, The Shapeless God: Essays on Modern Fiction, page 85:
- Ludovic's deferential voice ("after what's happened, Sir, don't you think it will be more suitable") suddenly turns from its plummy to the plebeian key ("to shut your bloody trap").
- 2014 March 31, Roger Cohen, “The case for Scotland”, in The New York Times:
- The fact that David Cameron, the conservative prime minister, is a plummy-voiced, Eton-educated, upper-class Brit from central casting has played into [Alex] Salmond's hands.
- 2018 October 26, Ellen Barry and Amie Tsang, “London’s King of Retail Fashion, Brought Low by #MeToo”, in New York Times:
- But a plummy-voiced Labour peer, Baron Peter Hain, decided to defy the court order, invoking his parliamentary privilege to identify Mr. Green as the subject of the newspaper’s investigation.
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Derived terms
- plummily
- plumminess
See also
- peachy
- cherry
- plum in one's mouth