carbuncle

[ kahr-buhng-kuhl ]

noun

1. Pathology. a painful circumscribed inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue, resulting in suppuration and sloughing, and having a tendency to spread somewhat like a boil, but more serious in its effects.
2. a gemstone, especially a garnet, cut with a convex back and a cabochon surface.
3. Also called Lon·don brown [luhn, -d, uh, n , broun]. a dark grayish, red-brown color.
4. Obsolete. any rounded red gem.

adjective

1. having the color carbuncle.

carbuncle

/ ˈkɑːˌbʌŋkəl; kɑːˈbʌŋkjʊlə /

noun

1. an extensive skin eruption, similar to but larger than a boil, with several openings: caused by staphylococcal infection
2. a rounded gemstone, esp a garnet cut without facets
3. a dark reddish-greyish-brown colour

Derived Forms

• carbuncular, adjective
• ˈcarˌbuncled, adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of carbuncle¹

1150–1200; Middle English < Anglo-French < Latin carbunculus kind of precious stone, tumor, literally, live coal, equivalent to carbōn- (stem of carbō ) burning charcoal + -culus -cule ¹, apparently assimilated to derivates from short-vowel stems; homunculus

Word History and Origins

Origin of carbuncle¹

C13: from Latin carbunculus diminutive of carbō coal

Example Sentences

Mr Venturi's design was chosen following the cancellation of a proposed extension to the National Gallery, famously derided as a "monstrous carbuncle" on Trafalgar Square by Prince Charles.

From BBC

Watching Donald Trump speak is like watching a festering carbuncle explode in a spray of pus and blood.

From Salon

He disdained a proposed addition to London’s National Gallery as “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.”

From Washington Post

Some of the casualties: a planned extension to the National Gallery, which Charles compared to a “monstrous carbuncle”; a Mies van der Rohe-designed building that he called “a giant glass stump”; and three projects by Richard Rogers, the modernist architect who died in 2021.

From New York Times

For those keeping count, that’s 345 rose-cut aquamarines, 37 white topaz, 27 tourmalines, 12 rubies, seven amethysts, six sapphires, two jargoons, one garnet, one spinel and one carbuncle, which is not to be confused with a carbuncle, a type of abscess.

From Washington Post

Related Words

• gemstone
• jewel