scarlet
UK /ˈskɑːlɪt/ · US /ˈskɑɹlɪt/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun
Forms scarlets scarleting scarleted
- noun A brilliant red colour sometimes tinged with orange.
- noun Cloth of a scarlet color.
- adjective Of a bright red colour.
- adjective Sinful or whorish. “a scarlet woman”
- adjective (Ireland) Blushing; embarrassed or mortified.
- verb (transitive) To dye or tinge (something) with scarlet.
- proper noun A female given name from English, a modern variant of Scarlett, or from the common noun scarlet.
Synonyms
scarlet red vermilion orange red red reddish ruddy blood-red carmine cerise cherry cherry-red crimson ruby ruby-red
Etymology
From Middle English scarlet, scarlat, borrowed from Old French escarlate (“a type of cloth”), from Medieval Latin scarlātum (“scarlet cloth”), of uncertain origin. This was long thought to derive from Classical Persian سقرلات (saqirlāt, “a warm woollen cloth”), but the Persian word (first attested in the 1290s) is now thought to be from Arabic سِقِلَّات (siqillāt), denoting very expensive, luxury silks dyed scarlet-red using the exceptionally expensive dye, first attested around the ninth century. The most obvious route for the Arabic word siqillāt to have entered the Romance languages would be via the Arabic-speaking Iberian region of al-Andalus, particularly Almería, where kermes was produced extensively; compare especially the dialectal form سِقِرْلَاط (siqirlāṭ). The word then came to be used of woollen cloth dyed with the same dye. The Arabic word may itself be derived from Byzantine Greek σιγιλλᾶτον (sigillâton), from Latin sigillātum (“a type of fabric”, literally “sealed; sealing”) .
Webster’s 1913
- noun A deep bright red tinged with orange or yellow, --of many tints and shades; a vivid or bright red color.
- noun Cloth of a scarlet color.
- adjective Of the color called scarlet; as, a scarlet cloth or thread.
- verb To dye or tinge with scarlet. [R.]
Etymology [OE. scarlat, scarlet, OF. escarlate, F. écarlate (cf. Pr. escarlat, escarlata, Sp. & Pg. escarlata, It. scarlatto, LL. scarlatum), from Per. sakirlat.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “scarlet”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details