kohl

See also: Kohl

English

WOTD – 30 June 2017

Etymology

A sample of kohl

A food seller from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and his granddaughter with kohl-lined eyes

From Arabic كُحْل (kuḥl, “antimony; kohl, stibnite (powdered antimony)”). Doublet of alcohol and alcool.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəʊl/, /kɔʊl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /koʊl/
• Homophones: coal, cole
• Rhymes: -əʊl

Noun

kohl (uncountable)

1. A dark powder, usually powdered stibnite (an antimony ore), used as eye makeup, especially in Eastern countries.

   Hypernyms: eyeliner < makeup, cosmetic

Derived terms

• kohl pencil

Translations

makeup

Albanian: ithmid Arabic: كُحْل (kuḥl) Catalan: alcofoll (ca) Dhivehi: އަނދުން (aⁿdun̊) Dutch: kohl (nl) m Finnish: kajaali (fi) German: Kajal (de) n Greek: Ancient: στίβι n (stíbi), στίμμι n (stímmi), λάρβασον n (lárbason) Hebrew: כֹּחַל (he) m (kóẖal) Hindi: सुरमा (hi) m (surmā), अंजन (hi) m (añjan), काजल (hi) (kājal) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: kil (ku) Ottoman Turkish: عصام (ʼısam) Persian: سرمه (fa) (sorma) Polish: kohl (pl) m Russian: сурьма́ (ru) f (surʹmá), кра́ска для век f (kráska dlja vek), кайал m (kajál) Spanish: antimonita (es) Tamil: மை (ta) (mai) Turkish: sürme (tr) Urdu: سرمہ m (surma), کاجل m (kājal), انجن m (anjan) Yoruba: tìróò

Verb

kohl (third-person singular simple present kohls, present participle kohling, simple past and past participle kohled)

1. (transitive) To decorate one's eyes with kohl.
   • 2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 241:

     A plain, big woman with heavily kohled eyes and pudgy arms.

See also

• kohl rabi (etymologically unrelated)

Further reading

• kohl (cosmetics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• holk