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de Koo·ning (dĭ knĭng), Willem 1904-1997.
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Dutch-born American painter and leader of the abstract expressionist school. In the 1950s he produced a monumental series entitled Woman, characterized by unrestrained color and a violent treatment of subject matter. His wife, Elaine Fried de Kooning (1918-1989), painted in a variety of styles, often devoting numerous works to a single theme, as in her drawings and portraits of John F. Kennedy.
(click for a larger image)
Willem de Kooning
photographed in the 1980s
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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