cyprine

English

Etymology 1

From cypress +‎ -ine.

Adjective

cyprine (comparative more cyprine, superlative most cyprine)

1. (botany) Of or pertaining to the cypress.

Etymology 2

From Latin cyprium (“copper”) +‎ -ine.

Noun

cyprine (countable and uncountable, plural cyprines)

1. A variety of tourmaline that contains copper, which gives it a unique blue color, also called cuprian elbaite.
   • 1935, Charles Palache, The Minerals of Franklin and Sterling Hill, Sussex County, New Jersey, page 95:

     The fibrous copper-bearing variety cyprine was first observed by the author in 1905 in a small dump of unknown origin at the mouth of the Parker shaft.

   • 1949, The Gemmologist - Volume 18, page 104:

     A bright blue variety of idocrase is known as cyprine and is so-called after Cyprus, which was the ancient source copper.

   • 1992, Krystyna Dyrek, Alexej N. Platonov, Zbigniew Sojka, Witold Żabiński, “Optical absorption and EPR study of Cu²⁺ ions in vesuvianite ("cyprine") from Sauland, Telemark , Norway”, in European Journal of Mineralogy, volume 5, page 1285:

     The shape of the "cyprine" optical spectrum is typical of minerals containing Cu²⁺ ions (Platonov, 1976).

Etymology 3

From Latin cyprīnus (“a species of carp”) +‎ -ine.

Adjective

cyprine (comparative more cyprine, superlative most cyprine)

1. (zoology) Of or pertaining to the carp.

Noun

cyprine (plural cyprines)

1. A fish from the taxonomic family Cyprinidae.
   • 1966, Eugene Fodor, Yugoslavia, page 91:

     The mountain streams and upper reaches of the rivers are rich in trout, grayling and salmon, while the rivers of the plains abound in cyprine fish such as minnows, carp, huck, etc.

   • 2020, Hiroya Kawanabe, Machiko Nishino, Masayoshi Maehata, Lake Biwa: Interactions between Nature and People, page 46:

     It contains xenocypridines (Xenocypris), cultrines (Culter and Hemiculterella), cyprines (Cyprinus and Carassius), hypophthalmichthines (Hypophthalmichthys), leuciscines (Leuciscus, Mylopharyngodon, and Ctenopharyngodon), and gobionines (Gnathopogon) all of which were extant genera (Liu and Su 1962).

Etymology 4

Ultimately from Ancient Greek κύπρις (kúpris), an epithet of Aphrodite, + -ine.

Noun

cyprine (plural cyprines)

1. vaginal secretions that result from sexual arousal.
   • 1977, Heresies - Volume 1, Issues 1-4, page 98:

     Older women who no longer menstruate, excited by the younger women's caresses, secrete enough cyprine to paint their bodies.

   • 1979, Monique Wittig, Sande Zeig, Lesbian Peoples, page 37:

     No one is unaware that cyprine is different in taste depending upon the climate where it is produced and the diet of its producer.

   • 1987, John George Moss, Future Indicative: Literary Theory and Canadian Literature, page 96:

     No phallus seeks a sheath in this "mere hole," no Freudian or Lacanian child passes out through the root fibres and tangled grasses to become the symbolic phallus his deprived mother lacks. Instead, what is "fretilizing," fecundating, what leaves its damp stain from Regen't Park down to Euston, is the cyprine juice of female sexual pleasure, cyprine juice signalling a pleasure that, in Lacan's terms, is "beyond the phallus" ( 145 ) and supplementary to the biology of reproduction.

   • 1992, Vance Randolph, Blow the Candle Out, page 663:

     In the last line, sweetest soup (in other versions: sweetest sauce); compare in No. 242, "John Harloson's Saltpeter," on version note A, on the unusualness in English-language folksong or folklore of any appreciative reference, as here, to the female vaginal liquor, or cyprine.

References

• “cyprine”, in Collins English Dictionary.

Anagrams

• pyrenic

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si.pʁin/

Etymology 1

From Latin cyprium (“copper”) +‎ -ine.

Noun

cyprine f (plural cyprines)

1. (mineralogy) a blue variety of vesuvianite

Hypernyms

• vésuvianite

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Ancient Greek κύπρις (kúpris), an epithet of Aphrodite, + -ine.

Noun

cyprine f (plural cyprines)

1. (sex) vaginal lubrication, vaginal fluid

Further reading

• “cyprine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Noun

cyprīne

1. vocative singular of cyprīnus