nacre

See also: nacré

English

WOTD – 25 October 2015

Alternative forms

• naker, nacker (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French nacre, from Medieval Latin nacchara, from Arabic نَقَّارَة (naqqāra). Doublet of nagara. Also present in nacarat.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪkə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈneɪkəɹ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪkə(ɹ)

Noun

nacre (countable and uncountable, plural nacres)

Nacre

1. (obsolete) A shellfish which contains mother-of-pearl. [16th–19th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     The shell-fish called a Nacre, liveth even so with the Pinnotere, which is a little creature like unto a Crabfish […].

2. A pearly substance made mainly of stacked layers of aragonite and organic matter which lines the interior of many shells; mother-of-pearl. [from 17th c.]
   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray:

     On a little table of dark perfumed wood thickly encrusted with nacre, […] was lying a note from Lord Henry, and beside it was a book bound in yellow paper, the cover slightly torn and the edges soiled.

Derived terms

• nacrous

Translations

pearly substance on the interior of shells — see mother-of-pearl

Anagrams

• Caren, Carne, Cerna, Crane, Crean, Nérac, Rance, caner, caren, crane, crena, rance, recan

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French nacre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nakʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

nacre f (plural nacres)

1. mother-of-pearl (the hard pearly inner layer of certain mollusk shells)

Verb

nacre

1. inflection of nacrer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Derived terms

• nacré
• nacrer

Further reading

• “nacre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• ancre, ancré, cerna, crâne, écran, encra, rance

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French nacre, nacaire, from Medieval Latin nacchara, from Arabic نَقَّارَة (naqqāra).

Noun

nacre m (plural nacres)

1. nacre (shellfish)
   • 1608, chapter 42, in Histoire du monde... mis en français par Antoine Dupinet, page 490:

     Les Nacres aussi sont de la race des poissons à escailles.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• French: nacre (“mother-of-pearl”), nacaire (“a small drum”)
• → Catalan: nacre
  • → Portuguese: nácar
  • → Spanish: nácar
• → English: nacre, naker, nacker