cochineal
(ˈkɒtʃɪniːl)
Forms: 6–8 cochenille, cochinelle, 7–8 cochineel, -inele, -eneal, -enile, 7– cochineal; also 7 cochenel(le, -anele, -oneel, cochinella, cochonillio; 6 cuchinilla, 7 cuchineel, -inile, -eneale, -anel, coucheneele, -enille; 6–7 cutchenele, 7 cutcheneale, -ineale, -yneale, -aneale, -anel(e, -oneal(e; (7 quitchineel, chochineel, scutchenel, etc.).
[a. F. cochenille, ad. Sp. cochinilla or It. cocciniglia. The latter is evidently a deriv. of It. coccino, L. coccinum scarlet robe or vesture, It. coccineo, L. coccineus scarlet-coloured, f. coccum scarlet, ‘grain’, orig. ‘berry’, in It. cocco ‘graine to dye scarlet with’ (Florio). Sp. has also cochinilla ‘wood-louse’, dim. of cochina ‘sow’, and it has been said that cochinilla ‘cochineal’ is the same word, from the resemblance of the dried cochineal insects to wood-lice in the same state; but this is app. a secondary association arising out of the fortuitous identity of the words.]
1. A dye-stuff consisting of the dried bodies of the insect Coccus cacti, which is found on several species of cactus in Mexico and elsewhere. It is used for making carmine, and as a brilliant scarlet dye; also in medicine as an antispasmodic, etc.
It was at first commonly supposed to be the berry or grain of a plant: see coccus, alkermes.
| 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 63, I have laden for your account..five Roves of Cochinelle, very excellent good, and of fine colour. 1598 Florio, Cociniglia, a kinde of rich flie or graine comming out of India to dye scarlet with, called Cutchenele. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. i. (1641) 86/1 There grows untill'd the ruddy Cochenel. 1600 Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 72 The berrie of Cochenile, or any other berrie, fruit..or earthe, fitte for dying. 1604 E. G[rimston] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. xxiii. 275 Small wormes breede in the leaves of this tree..this is that Indian Cochenille, so famous, and wherewith they die in graine. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia vi. 225 Wee..tooke her with..fiftie Chests of Cutchanele. a 1683 Oldham Poet. Wks. (1686) 27 And truckt for Indigo, and Cutchoneal. 1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3863/3 The Dixwell Ketch..richly laden with Cochenile, Coco, Logwood, etc. 1822 J. Imison Sc. & Art II. 186 Wool is died Scarlet..by Cochineal. 1861 Tylor Anahuac ix. 227 Vanilla and cochineal were first found in Mexico. |
2. The colour of cochineal-dye, scarlet.
| 1632 Massinger Maid of Honour v. i, And I..Will have my points of cochineal and yellow. |
3. The insect (Coccus cacti) which produces this dye; more fully cochineal-insect.
| [1594 Blundevil Exerc. v. xi. (ed. 7) 555 The chiefe Merchandizes that come from Mexicana into Europe are..Cochenilles to dy with, etc. 1603 Breton Post with Packet, I haue sent you likewise a Tunne of Cuchiniles.] 1697 W. Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 228 The Cochineel is an Insect, bred in a sort of Fruit much like the Prickle-Pear. 1730 Rutty Cochineal in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 268 The Curious may be now assured of a Thing which has been very uncertain for so many Years, that the Cochineals were really little Animals. 1764 Grainger Sugar Cane ii. 171 Thus cochinille Feeds on the Indian fig. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. i. 71 The principal care which is required in rearing the Cochineals. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 344 The cochineal insect is small, rugose, and of a deep mulberry colour. |
4. cochineal fig: the cactus-plant, Opuntia (Nopalea) cochinillifera, on which the cochineal-insect feeds. Also cochineal-tree.
| 1697 W. Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 124 The Fryars get plentiful Incomes..in other places where they plant Cochoneel-Trees. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xxi. 289 The Cochineal Fig on which the insect of that name feeds. |