carmine

Etymology

It is borrowed from French carmin,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Medieval Latin carminium.^[2][3][4][5] The American Heritage Dictionary, Barnhart and Klein take the Medieval Latin word as a blend of Arabic قِرْمِز (qirmiz, “kermes; crimson”) and Latin minium (“red lead, cinnabar”),^[4][3][8][1] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged as an irregular formation from them;^[5] Etymonline says that the Latin form was influenced by minium, a word said to be of Iberian origin.^[2][8] Hoad and Dictionary.com see instead a conflation of carmesīnum (the source of crimson) and minium.^[9][10] The OED allows a second source, borrowed from Spanish carmín,^[11][12] and derives the medieval Latin carmīnus by contraction from carmesīnus, from Spanish carmesí (“crimson”), from an Arabic adjective meaning "crimson", from qirmiz, the kermes insect.^[11] Wiktionary takes the Arabic word from Persian, ultimately from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kŕ̥miš (“worm”),^[1] and Skeat likewise traced it to the Sanskrit word for a worm, the cochineal insect.^[13] Etymonline and Weekley date French carmin to the 12th century.^[2][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A red or crimson pigment obtained from cochineal: 1712, in J. Browne's translation of P. Pomet's history of drugs.^{[11][3][2][5]}

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755), quoting Chambers, described carmine as a bright crimson colour bordering on purple, used by painters of miniatures, the most valuable product of cochineal and very expensive.^[14] The adjective is first recorded in P. Miller's Gardeners Dictionary (1737–59),^[11][3] and the word became the name of a colour in 1799.^[11][2] In chemistry it also denotes the colouring matter of cochineal, carminic acid.^[11][6] From 1839, in Darwin, it qualified other colour words, as in carmine-crimson.^[11] In 19th-century boxing slang carmine was blood.^[15]

Timeline

• 1712 – a red pigment obtained from cochineal.^{[11][3][2][5]}
• 1737–59 – adjective, deep crimson.^[11][3]
• 1799 – the name of a colour.^[11][2]
• 1839 – in compounds such as carmine-crimson.^[11]
• 1855 – slang, blood.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vivid red colour, sometimes with a purplish tinge.^[16][4][5]
2. A red pigment made from cochineal, used as a dye in foods, drugs and cosmetics and as a biological stain.^[16][5][11]
3. (chemistry) The colouring matter of cochineal; carminic acid.^[11][6]

Adjective

1. Of a vivid red or deep crimson colour: carmine lips.^[16][4][11]

Verb

1. To colour something carmine, or apply carmine to it.^[5]

Related words

• crimson
• kermes
• minium
• miniature
• alkermes

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins