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  1. carmine love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A strong to vivid red.
  2. n. A crimson pigment derived from cochineal.
  3. adj. Strong to vivid red.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The pure coloring matter or principle of cochineal, to which the formula C17H18O10 has been assigned. It forms a purple mass soluble in water.
  2. n. That one of two or more lakes of different strengths prepared from the same coloring matter which contains the greatest proportion of coloring matter to the base, which is generally alumina.
  3. n. Specifically A pigment made from cochineal. It is a transparent crimson of considerable luminosity and intense chroma. It is prepared from a decoction of cochineal, the coloring matter being precipitated by some aluminous salt, forming a lake.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A purplish-red pigment, made from dye obtained from the cochineal beetle; carminic acid or any of its derivatives
  2. n. A purplish-red colour, resembling that pigment.
  3. adj. of the purplish red colour shade carmine.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A rich red or crimson color with a shade of purple.
  2. n. A beautiful pigment, or a lake, of this color, prepared from cochineal, and used in miniature painting.
  3. n. (Chem.) The essential coloring principle of cochineal, extracted as a purple-red amorphous mass. It is a glucoside and possesses acid properties; -- hence called also carminic acid.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a variable color averaging a vivid red
  2. adj. of a color at the end of the color spectrum (next to orange); resembling the color of blood or cherries or tomatoes or rubies
  3. v. color carmine

Etymologies

  1. From French carmin, from irregular Medieval Latin carminium, itself from Arabic قرمز (qirmiz, "crimson, kermes") (from Sanskrit krimiga "insect-produced", from कृमि (kṛ́mi, "worm, insect")), plus or with influence from Latin minium. (Wiktionary)
  2. French carmin, from Medieval Latin carminium, probably blend of Arabic qirmiz, kermes; see kermes, and Latin minium, cinnabar; see minium. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Red beverages -- including Campari and Tropicana Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice -- are often colored with cochineal, aka carmine, a dye derived from insects.”

    The Huffington Post: Anneli Rufus: Are Animals in Your Cocktail?

  • “Many cosmetics' ingredients include beeswax, especially lipsticks, as well as lanolin a derivative of sheep's wool, and carmine, which is produced from the bodies of bugs.”

    The Huffington Post: Maya Gottfried: Taking the Cruelty Out of the Fall's Hottest Makeup Trends

  • “Each is defined as a carmine lake, and published instructions to create them are similar; Schäffer also includes carmine in his hierarchy of red colors. 2 Schäffer's system suggests that the three are separate colors; did he learn their differences from his color merchant?”

    The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe

  • “Some food dyes aren't vegan; red pigment can be cochineal or carmine, which is insects!”

    You, Too, Can Have Teletubby Poo

  • “Produced by adding aqueous ferrate of potash to an excess of dilute solutions of baryta salts, has been described as carmine-coloured and permanent.”

    Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists

  • “The artist would, however, do well to obtain, all the colors mentioned in the last chapter of this work, and be sure to get the very best, as there are various qualities of the same color, particularly carmine, which is very expensive, and the cupidity of some may induce them to sell a poor article for the sake of larger profits.”

    History and Practice of the Art of Photography

  • “Another scary and buggy additive to know about is carmine, which is made from the cochineal beetle and generally used as a red food dye”

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

  • “This article just drew my attention to the interesting story behind carmine, which is a pigment precipitated from carminic acid (shown below) extracted from the bodies of Dactylopius coccus, the so-called "cochineal" insect, of which the acid comprises up to 24% of dry body weight.”

    MAKE Magazine

  • “Some people worry that the coloring -- often called carmine or carminic acid -- could be listed as a "natural color," disguising the fact that there are bugs in the product.”

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed

  • “But earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration imposed a rule saying that any food or cosmetic containing cochineal, or a related additive called carmine, be labeled as such.”

    STLtoday.com Top News Headlines

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Lists

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Comments

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  • bilby Sometimes hidden on the ingredients list as colouring 120 or E120. Jan 5, 2011

  • bilby "Is this car mine?" asked Tom colourfully. Dec 21, 2007

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‘carmine’ has been looked up 2124 times, loved by 2 people, added to 57 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.