Orcin

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The organic compound 3,5-dihydroxytoluene, found in many lichens and synthesizable from toluene. countable, uncountable

Etymology

From French orcine, from New Latin orcina, from Dutch orseille, from French orseille, from Old French orchel, orseil, from Old Catalan orxella (influenced by dialectal Arabic [script needed] ('urjālla)), from Italian oricello, from Latin ōricilla, diminutive of ōricula (variant of auricula), both diminutives of auris (“ear”)) + illa (a double diminutive suffix) or from auris (“ear”) + cula + illa. The name of the dye was influenced by the visual resemblance of the lichen used in production to a small ear.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.