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  1. alizarin love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. An orange-red crystalline compound, C14H6O2(OH)2, used in making dyes.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A peculiar red coloring matter (C14H8O4) formerly obtained from madder, and extensively used as a dyestuff. It was discovered in 1824 by Robiquet and Colin, who obtained it by digesting madder-root with alcohol and treating this with sulphuric acid, thus producing a black mass which they called charbon de garance. On heating, this yielded a sublimate of alizarin in long, brilliant, red, needle-shaped crystals. It is now artificially prepared on a large scale from anthracene (C14H10), a product of the distillation of coal-tar. It forms yellowish-red crystals insoluble in water, difficultly soluble in alcohol, but readily soluble in alkalis, giving to the solution a purplish-red color and beautiful fluorescence. It has acid properties and unites with bases.
  2. n. Commercial alizarin is sold in the form of yellow paste containing 20 per cent. of dry substance, and, less frequently, as a dry powder. The dry substance in the paste is seldom pure alizarin, but contains varying amounts of flavopurpurin and anthrapurpurin, both of which have properties similar to alizarin. Natural alizarin derived from madder contains purpurin in addition to the above. The nature of the various commercial alizarins is often designated by suffixed letters or numbers. Thus alizarin I, alizarin P, and alizarin V are nearly pure alizarin and give blnish reds, while alizarin CA, alizarin G, etc., contain anthrapurpurin or flavopurpurin, or both, and give yellowish reds.

Wiktionary

  1. n. a type of red or crimson dye

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Chem.) A coloring principle, C14H6O2(OH)2, found in madder, and now produced artificially as an an orange-red crystalline compound from anthracene. It is used in making red pigments (such as the Turkish reds), and in dyeing.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an orange-red crystalline compound used in making red pigments and in dyeing

Etymologies

  1. Arabic العصارة (al-ʕuṣāra, "juice"). (Wiktionary)
  2. French alizarine, from alizari, madder root, from Spanish, probably from Arabic al-'uṣāra, the juice : al-, the + 'uṣāra, juice (from 'aṣara, to squeeze; see ʿṣr in Semitic roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Mr. Davids made many experiments with "alizarin" inks in the early sixties but did not consider them valuable enough to put on the market.”

    Forty Centuries of Ink

  • “The so-called "alizarin" ink referred to has now become obsolete.”

    Forty Centuries of Ink

  • “The right half of each swatch shows alizarin crimson watercolors after an exposure of 300 hours of sunlight.”

    Archive 2010-04-01

  • “Genuine alizarin crimson can be identified by the color name of PR 83.”

    Archive 2010-04-01

  • “Like someone else mentioned, leaving the painting out in the light will lighten a lot of oils but you also have to worry about colours like alizarin crimson being bleached out and losing colour.”

    White Test

  • “Several manufacturers still offer PR 83 alizarin in all painting media in the name of being traditional, but they shouldn't.”

    Archive 2010-04-01

  • ““Did you know that when you talk about vampires, your words are the same color as”—I reached for the tube of paint on the table—“alizarin crimson?””

    Simon & Schuster: The Season of Risks

  • “The painter Virgil Elliott (author of Traditional Oil Painting), did a test panel several years ago with many (19) varieties of alizarin and alizarin replacements.”

    Lightfastness and Alizarin Crimson

  • “None of the replacements have exactly the same wonderful staining and tinting qualities of alizarin, which are so wonderful, especially for skin tones.”

    Lightfastness and Alizarin Crimson

  • “Some of the quinacridones seem rather lurid to someone used to the subtle quality of alizarin.”

    Lightfastness and Alizarin Crimson

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equivalents (1)

Other words for ‘alizarin’

  1. alizarine

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. pigment

hyponyms (3)

Words that are more specific

  1. alizarin red
  1. alizarin crimson
  1. alizarin carmine

same context (22)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. half-consciously
  2. sweet-fern
  3. bond-equivalent
  4. eye-searing
  1. kil
  2. red-on-red
  3. Hyderabad
  4. violet-coloured
  1. ryot
  2. cochineal
  3. olibanum
  4. star-studded
  1. cyanin
  2. benzol
  3. tetrahydrofuran
  4. tantric
  1. iodoform
  2. God
  3. fecundation
  4. disulphide
  1. moonlet
  2. indeede

reverse dictionary (34)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. alizarin
  2. nitro-alizarin
  3. orange
  4. quinalizarin
  5. alizarate
  6. disulphonic
  1. gallacetophenone
  2. verantin
  3. anthraflavic
  4. anthraquinoline
  5. madder
  6. anthracene
  1. frangulinic acid
  2. garancin
  3. chrome alum
  4. colorine
  5. flavopurpurin
  6. rubia tinctorum
  1. alizarin yellow
  2. munjistin
  3. naphthazarin
  4. purpurin
  5. pyrosulphuric
  6. quinizarin
  1. ruberythrinic
  2. synthesis
  3. anthraquinone
  4. garanceux
  5. isopurpurin
  6. anthrarobin
  1. anthrarufin
  2. pincoffin
  3. purple-black
  4. sulphoricinoleic

tags (7)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. color
  1. dye
  1. pigment
  1. wotd
  1. word-of-the-day
  1. _color
  1. vcvcvcvc

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‘alizarin’ has been looked up 2554 times, loved by 6 people, added to 42 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 17.