minium

Etymology

From Latin minium.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪnɪəm/

Noun

minium (uncountable)

1. (now historical) Cinnabar, especially when used as a pigment; vermilion. [from 14th c.]
2. Red lead. [from 17th c.]
   • 2007, Nancy L. Canepa, translating Giambattista Basile, Tale of Tales, Penguin 2007, p. 29:

     [H]e was so overcome by suffering that his face, which had once been of oriental minium, now became like orpiment, and the hams of his lips turned into rancid lard.

Noun

minium n

1. red lead, minium (a bright red, poisonous oxide of lead, Pb3O4, used as a pigment and in glass and ceramics)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin minium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /min.jɔm/

Noun

minium m (uncountable)

1. red lead

Further reading

• “minium” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Alternative forms

• min

Etymology

Iberian word.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ni.um/, [ˈmɪ.ni.ũ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ni.um/, [ˈmiː.ni.um]

Noun

minium n (genitive miniī); second declension

1. native cinnabar
2. red lead, minium

References

• minium in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• minium in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• minium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• minium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette