brazil
/bɹəˈzɪl/ noun, proper noun
Forms brazils brasil Brasill
- noun (obsolete) A red-orange dye obtained from brazil wood.
- noun The hard, brown wood of a certain species of the tribe Caesalpinieae; originally sappan (Biancaea sappan), of the East Indies, and later brazilwood, Paubrasilia echinata.
- noun A Brazil nut. “I picked up a handful of brazils from the bowl.”
- noun A seam of coal containing iron pyrites
- proper noun A large Portuguese-speaking country in South America. Official name: Federative Republic of Brazil. Capital: Brasília.
- proper noun A city, the county seat of Clay County, Indiana, United States.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Portuguese Brazil, older spelling of Brasil, from brasil (“brazilwood”), originally ‘red like an ember’, from brasa (“ember”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *brasō (“gleed, crackling coal”), and -il (“-ile, -like, -y”) from Latin -īlis (“adjective suffix”).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “brazil”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details