alizarin
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See also: Alizarin
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French alizarine, corresponding to alizari + -in.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]alizarin (countable and uncountable, plural alizarins)
- (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.