scarlet
nounadjectiveverbattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈskɑːlɪt//
- United States//ˈskɑɹlɪt//
- Australia//ˈskɐːlət//
A brilliant red colour sometimes tinged with orange.
noun
- 1
A brilliant red colour sometimes tinged with orange.
Biblical criteria of sexual seductiveness include a white skin, black hair, or henna-dyed, scarlet lips, a prominent nose, rosy temples, long straight neck, firm breasts, round thighs, an erect posture.
- 2
Cloth of a scarlet color.
All her household are clothed with scarlet.
Etymology
From Middle English scarlet, scarlat, borrowed from Old French escarlate (“a type of cloth”), from Medieval Latin scarlātum (“scarlet cloth”), of uncertain origin. This was long thought to derive from Classical Persian سقرلات (saqirlāt, “a warm woollen cloth”), but the Persian word (first attested in the 1290s) is now thought to be from Arabic سِقِلَّات (siqillāt), denoting very expensive, luxury silks dyed scarlet-red using the exceptionally expensive dye, first attested around the ninth century. The most obvious route for the Arabic word siqillāt to have entered the Romance languages would be via the Arabic-speaking Iberian region of al-Andalus, particularly Almería, where kermes was produced extensively; compare especially the dialectal form سِقِرْلَاط (siqirlāṭ). The word then came to be used of woollen cloth dyed with the same dye. The Arabic word may itself be derived from Byzantine Greek σιγιλλᾶτον (sigillâton), from Latin sigillātum (“a type of fabric”, literally “sealed; sealing”) .
adjective
- 1
Of a bright red colour.
Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
- 2
Sinful or whorish.
a scarlet woman
- 3
Blushing; embarrassed or mortified.
He signed off our correspondence, “Well thank God for facemasks, cos I’m scarlet”.
verb
- 1
To dye or tinge (something) with scarlet.
Forbeare; the aſhy paleneſſe of my cheeke / Is ſcarletted in ruddy flakes of vvrath: […]
Forms
- plural
- scarlets
- comparative
- more scarlet
- superlative
- most scarlet
- past tense
- scarleted
- past participle
- scarleted
- present participle
- scarleting
- third person singular
- scarlets
scarlet · A brilliant red colour sometimes tinged with orange.
Scarlet · A female given name from English, a modern variant of…Scarlett · A surname originating as an occupation for a dyer or seller…scarred · Having a scar or scars.