Etymology

carmine

C3A1R1M3I1N1E1

Today it means: A purplish-red pigment, made from dye obtained from the cochineal beetle; carminic acid or any of its derivatives. Full definition →

French carmin ← Medieval Latin carminium ← Arabic قِرْمِز
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

carmine · noun, adjective1

  1. Latin · derived fromminium
  2. Arabic · derived fromقِرْمِز“crimson, kermes”
  3. Medieval Latin · derived fromcarminium
  4. French · derived fromcarmin
  5. English todaycarmine

PIE word *kʷŕ̥mis Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷŕ̥mis Proto-Indo-Iranian *kŕ̥miš Persian کرمست* (*kermest)bor. Arabic قِرْمِز (qirmiz)bor. Medieval Latin *carminium? French carminder. English carmine 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.

Carmine · proper noun2

  1. Italian · borrowed fromCarmine
  2. English todayCarmine

The given name is borrowed from Italian Carmine.

Words from the same roots

Arabicقِرْمِز all →

crimsonkermes

Latinminium all →

miniummini-

ItalianCarmine all →

carmen

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.