Do you want to know what today is???  

Well on this day way back in 1848, gold was first accidentally discovered near Sacramento by James Marshall and Johann Sutter, thus starting the California gold rush.

I know this, and now you do too, because my co-worker Kristin Sutter (perhaps she's related to Johnann...?) shared with me her Forgotten English word-of-the-day calendar. And today's word, thematically inspired by that historical fact, is a fantastic word: clinquant.

I was a bit sad that I'd never heard of this old French-based word before (And 20 bonus vocabulary points to you if you already had.), because it means "glittering with gold." What a cool adjective. I'm huge fan of specificity like that, especially with jewelry-related words.

Now I just wish I had some glittering gold to play with in the studio for the rest of the afternoon. But with the price of gold any more ($913.00 USD/oz. as I type this – Ouch!), I think I'll make due with some sparkly silver instead.