cyanotype means an early photographic process employing paper sensitized with a cyanide. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
cyanotype is pronounced /saɪˈænəʊˌtaɪp/.
Why “cyanotype” is a great word
CYANOTYPE — [Noun] A photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print, or a print made by this process. From the combining form cyano- (from Greek kyanos, meaning "dark blue") and -type (from Greek typos, meaning "impression, model"). The word is first attested in print in 1842, introduced by Sir John Herschel. Unlike a daguerreotype, which yields a unique, silvery positive on metal, or a blueprint, which denotes a reproduced technical drawing, the cyanotype is a sun-drawn negative on paper, defined by its specific alchemy of iron compounds. It is the ghostly white tracing of a fern pressed on brilliant azure cardstock, the architectural skeleton of a seedpod, and the delicate, permanent shadow of lace preserved by light—an impression not of a moment's reality, but of its absence, rendered in the color of a boundless sky.
Etymology
From cyano- + -type.
noun
- An early photographic process employing paper sensitized with a cyanide.
- A photographic print produced by means of this process.