ochre

Alternative forms

• ocher (chiefly US)

Etymology

From Old French ocre and its source Latin ōchra, from Ancient Greek ὤχρα (ṓkhra, “pale yellow”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊkə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊkɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊkə(r)

Noun

ochre (countable and uncountable, plural ochres)

1. An earth pigment containing silica, aluminum and ferric oxide
2. A somewhat dark yellowish orange colour

   ochre colour:  

3. (molecular biology, colloquial) The stop codon sequence "UAA."
4. (slang) Money, especially gold.
   • 1854, Charles Dickens, Hard Times, Chapter 6,

     ‘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.’

Adjective

ochre (not comparable)

1. Having a yellow-orange colour.
2. (archaeology) Referring to cultures that covered their dead with ochre.

Verb

ochre (third-person singular simple present ochres, present participle ochring or ochreing, simple past and past participle ochred)

1. To cover or tint with ochre.
   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: Appleton, 1943, Chapter 14, p. 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:

     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

• ochrous / ochreous
• kokowai
• ruddle
• Appendix:Colors

Anagrams

• -chore, Roche, chore, ocher, roche