ultramarine
UK /ˌʌltɹəməˈɹiːn/ · US /ˌəltɹəməˈɹin/ adjective, noun
Forms ultramarines
- adjective (archaic) Beyond the sea.
- adjective Of a brilliant dark blue or slightly purplish color like that of the pigment (noun sense 1).
- noun In full ultramarine blue: a brilliant blue pigment traditionally made from ground-up lapis lazuli, and now usually either extracted from mineral deposits or made synthetically.
- noun A brilliant dark blue or slightly purplish colour like that of the pigment.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin ultrāmarīnus, from Latin ultrā (“beyond”) + marīnus (“of or relating to the sea, marine”). By surface analysis, ultra + marine.
Noun sense 1 (“pigment”) refers to the fact that lapis lazuli was obtained from foreign countries and hence “beyond the sea”.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Situated or being beyond the sea. Burke.
- noun A blue pigment formerly obtained by powdering lapis lazuli, but now produced in large quantities by fusing together silica, alumina, soda, and sulphur, thus forming a glass, colored blue by the sodium polysulphides made in the fusion. Also used adjectively. Green ultramarine, a green pigment obtained as a first product in the manufacture of ultramarine, into which it is changed by subsequent treatment.
Etymology [Pref. ultra- + marine.]
Etymology [Cf. Sp. ultramarino. So called because the lapis lazuli was originally brought from beyond the sea, -- from Asia.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “ultramarine”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details