cinnabar

English

Cinnabar mineral (1)

Etymology

From Middle English cynabare [mid-15th c.], from Old French cinabre, from Latin cinnabaris, from Ancient Greek κιννάβαρι (kinnábari), from perhaps Arabic زِنْجَفْر (zinjafr), related to Persian شنگرف‎ (šangarf), of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

Noun

cinnabar (countable and uncountable, plural cinnabars)

  1. A deep red mineral, mercuric sulfide, HgS; the principal ore of mercury; such ore used as the pigment vermilion.
  2. A bright red colour tinted with orange.
    cinnabar colour:  
  3. (countable) A species of moth, Tyria jacobaeae, having red patches on its predominantly black wings.
    • 2015, Norman Maclean, A Less Green and Pleasant Land, page 223:
      There are a few day-flying exceptions such as hummingbird hawk-moths, silver Ys, cinnabars, scarlet tigers and burnets but, in general, knowledge of moths lags behind that of butterflies.
  4. "Cinnabar Panacea"; the Elixir of Life.

Synonyms

Translations

Adjective

cinnabar (comparative more cinnabar, superlative most cinnabar)

  1. Of a bright red colour tinted with orange.

Derived terms

Translations

Quotations

  • For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:cinnabar.

See also

Further reading

  • Cinnabar” in David Barthelmy, Webmineral Mineralogy Database, 1997–.
  • cinnabar”, in Mindat.org, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, accessed 29 August 2016.
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