cinnabar

First attested in the mid-15th century. From Middle English cynabare, from Old French cinabre, from Latin cinnabaris, from Ancient Greek κιννάβαρι (kinnábari), of unknown origin.

• enPR: sĭnʹ-ə'bär; IPA^(key): /ˈsɪn.əˌbɑɹ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  • (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪn.əˌbɑː(ɹ)/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪn.əˌbɑɹ/

cinnabar (countable and uncountable, plural cinnabars)

1. A deep red mineral, mercuric sulfide, HgS; the principal ore of mercury; such ore used as the pigment vermilion.

   Synonym: (obsolete) æthiops mineral

2. A bright red colour tinted with orange.

   cinnabar:  

3. (countable) A species of erebid moth, Tyria jacobaeae, having red patches on its predominantly black wings.

   Synonym: cinnabar moth

   • 2015, Norman Maclean, A Less Green and Pleasant Land, page 223:

     There are a few day-flying exceptions such as hummingbird hawk-moths, silver Ys, cinnabars, scarlet tigers and burnets but, in general, knowledge of moths lags behind that of butterflies.

4. Synonym of dragon's blood (“type of resin”).
5. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (in “Cinnabar Panacea”) The Elixir of Life.

cinnabar (comparative more cinnabar, superlative most cinnabar)

1. Of a bright red colour tinted with orange.

• mercury

• David Barthelmy (1997–2025) “Cinnabar”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “cinnabar”, in Mindat.org‎^[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2025.
• cinnabar on Wikipedia.Wikipedia