coral

See also: Coral

English
Eunicella cavolinii (1), (2)

Etymology

From Old French coral (French corail), from Latin corallium, from Ancient Greek κοράλλιον (korállion, “coral”). Probably ultimately of Semitic origin,[1] compare Hebrew גּוֹרָל‎ (goral, “small pebble”), Arabic جَرَل‎ (ǧaral, “small stone”), originally referring to the red variety found in the Mediterranean. Since ancient times, a common folk etymology, accepted by some earlier scholars, connected the word instead to Ancient Greek κόρη (kórē) (referring to Medusa).[2][3][4] Beekes mentions both theories and considers the Semitic one convincing.[5]

Pronunciation

Noun

coral (countable and uncountable, plural corals)

  1. (uncountable) A hard substance made of the limestone skeletons of marine polyps.
  2. (countable) A colony of marine polyps.
  3. (countable) A somewhat yellowish pink colour, the colour of red coral.
    coral colour:  
  4. The ovaries of a cooked lobster; so called from their colour.
  5. (historical) A piece of coral, usually fitted with small bells and other appurtenances, used by children as a plaything.
    • 1859, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White:
      On the very chair which I used to occupy when I was at work Marian was sitting now, with the child industriously sucking his coral upon her lap

Translations

Adjective

coral (not comparable)

  1. Made of coral.
  2. Having the yellowish pink colour of coral.

Derived terms
terms derived from coral

Translations

See also

References
  1. Lewy, Heinrich (1895) Die semitischen Fremdwörter im Griechischen (in German), Berlin: R. Gaertner’s Verlagsbuchhandlung, pages 18–19
  2. See e.g. Lithica (one of the Orphic poems), 510-610, and Pliny the Elder, Natural History, book XXXII, line 11.
  3. C. W. King, The Natural History of Gems or Decorative Stones, 1867, Bell & Daldy, London, pp. 100–101.
  4. Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Harpers & Brothers, New York, 1846, p. 792.
  5. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology 1

Adjective

coral (masculine and feminine plural corals)

  1. strong, close (relationship)
  2. choral

Etymology 2

cor +‎ -al.

Noun

coral m (plural corals)

  1. chorus music
  2. coral (organism)

Old Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French coral, from Old French corallium, from Ancient Greek κοράλλιον (korállion).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [koˈɾal]

Noun

coral m (plural corales)

  1. coral
    • c. 1250, Alfonso X, Lapidario, f. 14v.
      DEl dozeno grado del ſigno de tauro es la piedra aque dizen coral negro.
      Of the twelfth degree of the sign of Taurus is the stone they call black coral.

Descendants

Portuguese

Etymology

coro +‎ -al.

Noun

coral m (plural corais)

  1. choir (group of singer)

Spanish

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /koˈɾal/
  • Rhymes: -al

Etymology 1

From Old Spanish coral, from Old French coral, from Latin corallium, from Ancient Greek κοράλλιον (korállion).

Noun

coral m (plural corales)

  1. (zoology) coral
  2. (botany) coral vine (Kennedia coccinea)

Etymology 2

coro (“choir”) +‎ -al.

Adjective

coral (plural corales)

  1. choral

Noun

coral m (plural corales)

  1. chorale

References
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