cochineal
pronunciation
How to pronounce cochineal in British English:
UK [ˌkɒtʃɪˈniːl]
How to pronounce cochineal in American English:
US [ ˈkɑːtʃəniːl]
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- Noun:
- a red dyestuff consisting of dried bodies of female cochineal insects
- Mexican red scale insect that feeds on cacti; the source of a red dye
Word Origin
- cochineal
- cochineal: [16] Cochineal ‘red dye’ comes via French cochenille from Old Spanish cochinilla, a term applied both to the dye and to the small insect related to the mealybugs, from whose dried body it is made. It is generally thought to be a derivative of Latin coccinus ‘scarlet’, which in turn came from Greek kokkinos, a derivative of kókos, the Greek term for the cochineal insect (the word originally meant ‘berry, seed’ – it was applied to various bacteria, such as streptococcus and staphylococcus, because of their spherical seedlike shape – and it was thought in ancient times that the dried body of the insect was a berry).=> staphylococcus, streptococcus
- cochineal (n.)
- 1580s, from French cochenille (16c.), probably from Spanish cochinilla, from a diminutive of Latin coccinus (adj.) "scarlet-colored," from coccum "berry (actually an insect) yielding scarlet dye" (see kermes). But some sources identify the Spanish source word as cochinilla "wood louse" (a diminutive form related to French cochon "pig"). The insect (Coccus Cacti) lives on the prickly pear cactus in Mexico and Central America and is a relative of the kermes and has similar, but more intense, dying qualities. Aztecs and other Mexican Indians used it as a dyestuff. It first is mentioned in Europe in 1523 in Spanish correspondence to Hernán Cortés in Mexico. Specimens were brought to Spain in the 1520s, and cloth merchants in Antwerp were buying cochineal in insect and powdered form in Spain by the 1540s. It soon superseded the use of kermes as a tinetorial substance. Other species of coccus are useless for dye and considered mere pests, such as the common mealy bug.
Example
- 1. A purplish red pigment prepared from lac or cochineal .
- 2. A crimson pigment derived from cochineal .
- 3. A red dyestuff consisting of dried bodies of female cochineal insects .
- 4. A red dye made of the dried and pulverized bodies of female cochineal insects .
- 5. The present research and utilization situation of cochineal insects in the world .