urucum

Borrowed from Portuguese urucum, borrowed from Old Tupi uruku, from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *uruku, from Proto-Tupian *ɨrʲuku.

urucum (uncountable)

1. Achiote.
   • 2006, William Bryant, The Birds of Paradise: Alfred Russel Wallace: a Life, page 67:

     Martius found most dressed in bits of clothing, their hair wildly tangled and their faces dyed red with urucum.

   • 2012, Daniel Everett, Language: The Cultural Tool, Profile, published 2013, page 122:

     They paint them, or at least parts of them, with urucum (reddish) plant dye or even their own blood if there are no urucum plants nearby.

   • 2013, Uchoa et al., ‘Antioxidant Properties of Singlet Oxygen Suppressors’, in Natural Antioxidants and Biocides from Wild Medicinal Plants, p. 78:

     Bixin results from lycopene oxidation and it is the main carotenoid found in the seed coat of urucum fruits (Bixa orellana L.), which is cultivated in tropical countries of South and Central America, Africa and Asia.

• urucu

Borrowed from Old Tupi uruku,^[1] from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *uruku, from Proto-Tupian *ɨrʲuku.

• Rhymes: -ũ
• Hyphenation: u‧ru‧cum

urucum m (plural urucuns)

1. achiote (Bixa orellana, a tropical American evergreen shrub)
2. achiote (seed of the achiote shrub)
3. (uncountable) achiote (orange-red dye obtained from achiote seeds)

• (shrub): urucuzeiro, urucueiro, achiote
• (seed): achiote
• (dye): achiote, colorau

• → English: urucum
• → Spanish: urucum

• “urucum”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “urucum”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• IPA^(key): /uɾuˈkum/ [u.ɾuˈkũm]
• Rhymes: -um
• Syllabification: u‧ru‧cum

urucum m (uncountable)

1. rare form of urucú