Brewer's: Verdant Green

An excessivley `green' or unsophisticated young man. The character was epitomized in The Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1853) by `Cuthbert Bede, BA' (Rev Edward Bradley). Verdant's adventures at Oxford, where he goes as a very green freshman, the victim of endless practical jokes and impostures, make an entertaining and enlightening commentary on life at the university in the mid-19th century.

`Looks ferociously mild in his gig-lamps!' remarked a third, alluding to Mr Verdant Green's spectacles. `And jolly green all over!' wound up a fourth. ch. iii

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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