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 antimony, used as eye makeup, especially in Eastern countries; stibnite.

Synonyms

• stibnite

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)
• Russian: сурьма́ (ru) f (surʹmá), кра́ска для век f (kráska dlja vek), кайал m (kajál)
• Turkish: sürme (tr)
• 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