alizarin

• alizarine

Borrowed from French alizarine, corresponding to alizari +‎ -in.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈlɪzəɹɪn/

alizarin (countable and uncountable, plural alizarins)

1. (organic chemistry) A red substance, 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, extracted from madder root and used as a dye.
   • 1946, Elizabeth Bishop, “Roosters”, in North and South:

     glass headed pins,
     oil-golds and copper greens,
     anthracite blues, alizarins,

   • 2010, Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of all Maladies, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 82:

     In 1883, the German output of alizarin, the brilliant red chemical that imitated natural carmine, reached twelve thousand tons, dwarfing the amount being produced by Perkin's factory in London.