Cinnabar (idiom)
The word cinnabar is used in German in everyday language. A vermilion is something that is worthless and nonsensical, or something that is unnecessarily made.
Etymologically , it can probably be derived from the fact that the mineral cinnabar ( cinnabarite ) is considered to be imperfect. Because the alchemists wrongly regarded mercury as the essence of all metals, and the alchemists believe that the yellow sulfur should provide the color of the artificial gold. But, contrary to the conclusions drawn from them, mercury and sulfur combine chemically not to gold, but to cinnabar.
The word is used in the form of "not understanding cinnabar about something", "talking cinnabar" etc.
There is a saying from the Chinese-speaking world: “You cannot touch the cinnabar without it staining”, which compares the low strength of the mineral with the nature of the social interactions.
Making cinnabar means making a very large, mostly unnecessary effort. This could be due to the fact that cinnabar used to be used to color runes in rune sticks and stones, but the production or processing of cinnabar was very complex.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Duden, Die deutsche Rechtschreibung, 24th edition, p. 1142: Zin | no | ber, der; -s (coll. for nonsense, worthless stuff), cf. Duden online
- ↑ Zinnober on bayrisches-woerterbuch.de
- ↑ Zinnober on schwaebisches-woerterbuch.de
- ↑ E. Broecker: Writing materials. In: Herbert Jankuhn, Heinrich Beck et al. (Ed.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . 2nd Edition. Volume 27. de Gruyter, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-11-018116-9 , pp. 289–291, here p. 290 ( limited preview in the Google book search)