carmine means of the purplish red colour shade carmine.
carmine is pronounced /ˈkɑːmaɪn/.
Why “carmine” is a great word
Of a vivid purplish-red color derived from the cochineal insect. From French *carmin*, from irregular Medieval Latin *carminium*, from Arabic *qirmiz* ("crimson, kermes"), from Persian *kermest*, from Proto-Indo-Iranian **kŕ̥miš* ("worm"), with possible influence from Latin *minium* ("red lead"); first attested in English c. 1712. Unlike "crimson," which suggests blood and depth, or "vermilion," which burns with the mineral fire of cinnabar, carmine is the specific hue of scale insects dried and crushed, of cochineal bodies harvested from prickly pear cactus under the Mexican sun. It is the stained fingertips of a dyer's apprentice, the unexpected note in a glass of Campari, the precise shade of a lady's lips in a seventeenth-century portrait—color as labor, as consumption, as the body of something small transformed into something seen.
Etymology
From French carmin, from irregular Medieval Latin carminium, itself from Arabic قِرْمِز (qirmiz, “crimson, kermes”) from Persian *کرمست (*kermest), ultimately from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kŕ̥miš (“worm”), plus or with influence from Latin minium. Compare crimson and kermes.
adj
- Of the purplish red colour shade carmine.
name
- A male given name from Italian.
- A surname from Italian.
noun
- A purplish-red pigment, made from dye obtained from the cochineal beetle; carminic acid or any of its derivatives.
- A purplish-red colour, resembling that pigment.e.g.“He wore a great coat in midsummer, being affected with the trembling delirium, and his face was the color of carmine.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- crimson 89% match — A deep, slightly bluish red. vs carmine →
- vermilion 88% match — A vivid red synthetic pigment made of mercury sulfide, cinnabar. vs carmine →
- cramoisie 88% match — crimson vs carmine →
- cochineal 86% match — A scale insect of the species Dactylopius coccus, native to the tropical and subtropical Americas, which lives on prickly pear cacti (genus Opuntia). vs carmine →
- scarlet 85% match — A brilliant red colour sometimes tinged with orange. vs carmine →
- incarnadine 83% match — Of the pale pink or pale red colour of flesh; carnation. vs carmine →
- magenta 82% match — A color which is close to the equal mixture of red and blue which is an additive secondary color but a subtractive primary color evoked by the combination of red and light blue. vs carmine →
- cerise 82% match — A deep, bright red colour tinted with pink. vs carmine →