Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An iron oxide used as a paint and cosmetic pigment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of a variety of red or purple pigments containing ferric oxide, found in natural earth or made by chemical methods.
  • noun The colour of Indian red pigment: a variety of dark, purplish reds.
  • adjective Having the colour of Indian red pigment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a reddish-brown color resembling the red soil used as body paint by American Indians
  • noun a red pigment composed in part from ferric oxide which is often used in paints and cosmetics
  • noun a red soil containing ferric oxide; often used as a pigment

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the fact that earths containing the pigment are found in the East Indies.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1672 pigment, c. 1810–27 colour and adjective. Indian + red, the pigment originally being an earth obtained from the East Indies.

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