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כַּרְמִיל karmīl – bright, rich red

Semantic Fields: Colours   
Author(s): John E. Hartley
First published: 2024-10-10
Citation: John E. Hartley, כַּרְמִיל karmīl – bright, rich red,
               Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2024

Introduction

Grammatical Type: noun

Occurrences: 3x HB (0/0/3); 0x Sir; 0x Qum; 0x inscr. (Total: 3).

  • Ketubim: 2 Chron 2:6, 13; 3:14.

7. Conclusion

כַּרְמִיל, most likely a Persian loanword that goes back to Sanskrit, references ‘the bright, rich red’ dye gained from the eggs of the insect cochenille. The colour produced by this dye was very close to that identified by אַרְגָּמָן. The latter lexeme most likely stands for a deeper red. Possibly in the post-exilic era fabrics dyed כַּרְמִיל were used in place of those dyed שָׁנִי. כַּרְמִיל occurs only three times in the OT; it did not continue as a colour lexeme in Rabbinic Hebrew.

For this entry, see further John E. Hartley, The Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Colour Lexemes (2010), 206-10 (Printed publications).

Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database