ochre
English
editEtymology 1
editFrom Old French ocre and its source Latin ōchra, from Ancient Greek ὤχρα (ṓkhra, “pale yellow”), from ὠχρός (ōkhrós, “pale, ocher”) (modern Greek ωχρός (ochrós)).
Alternative forms
edit- ocher (chiefly US)
Pronunciation
edit- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈəʊkə/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈoʊkɚ/
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -əʊkə(ɹ)
Noun
editochre (countable and uncountable, plural ochres)
- A clay earth pigment containing silica, aluminum and ferric oxide
- A somewhat dark yellowish orange colour
- ochre:
- (molecular biology, colloquial) The stop codon sequence "UAA."
- (slang) Money, especially gold.
- 1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 6, in Hard Times[1]:
- ‘What does he come here cheeking us for, then?’ cried Master Kidderminster, showing a very irascible temperament. ‘If you want to cheek us, pay your ochre at the doors and take it out.’
- Any of various brown-coloured hesperiid butterflies of the genus Trapezites.
Derived terms
editDescendants
editTranslations
editearth pigment
|
yellowish-orange colour
|
Adjective
editochre (not comparable)
- Having a yellow-orange colour.
- (archaeology) Referring to cultures that covered their dead with ochre.
Translations
edithaving yellow-orange colour
|
in archeology
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
editochre (third-person singular simple present ochres, present participle ochring or ochreing, simple past and past participle ochred)
- To cover or tint with ochre.
- 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter 14, in Capricornia[2], New York: Appleton, published 1943, page 229:
- […] his eye was caught by the sight of one child in a group of smaller children playing in the shallows some little distance down—a white child, so white by contrast with the others that at first he thought it must be ochred, which it could not be while playing in the water.
- 2009 July 6, Verlyn Klinkenborg, “How the Thunder Sounds”, in New York Times[3]:
- The sun gloats in the sky, casting a gleam on the pasture where there was so much umbering and ochreing only moments before.
See also
editEtymology 2
editFrom an unknown West African language, probably Igbo ọ́kụ̀rụ̀, but compare Akan ŋkrũmã and ŋkrakra (“broth”).
Noun
editochre (countable and uncountable, plural ochres)
References
edit- “ochre”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “ochre”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “okra, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Anagrams
editCategories:
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/əʊkə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/əʊkə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Molecular biology
- English colloquialisms
- English slang
- English terms with quotations
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- en:Archaeology
- English verbs
- English terms with unknown etymologies
- English terms derived from Igbo
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Browns
- en:Death
- en:Oranges
- en:Skippers
- en:Yellows