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''carbuncle'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260717141042-00-⌔

carbuncle - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

carbuncle (plural carbuncles)

  • (archaic) A deep- red or fiery colored garnet or other dark red precious stone, especially when cut cabochon.
    • ✤ With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus […]1
    • ✤ And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.2
    • ✤ His turban, or mandil [mandīl], was of finest white silk interwoven with gold, bestudded with pearl[s] and carbuncles; […]3
    • ✤ These are usually represented as short and stumpy with shaggy hair, dark wrinkled faces, little deep-set eyes, but bright as carbuncles.4
    • ✤ A piece of marigold or bay leaf was imbedded in the metal, and over it a carbuncle or chrysolite was placed.5
  • (heraldry) A charge or bearing supposed to represent the precious stone, with eight sceptres or staves radiating from a common centre; an escarbuncle.
  • (pathology) An abscess larger than a boil, usually with one or more openings draining pus onto the skin. It is usually caused by staphylococcal infection.
  • An unpopular or ugly building; an eyesore.

Etymology

From Middle English carbuncle, charbocle, from Old French carbuncle, charbuncle, from Latin carbunculus (“a small coal; a reddish kind of precious stone; a kind of tumor”), diminutive of carbō (“a coal, charcoal”). Doublet of Garfinkel and Garfunkel.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkɑː.bʌŋ.kl̩/
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈkɑɹˌbʌŋ.kl̩/
  • Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-07-17.

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Footnotes

  1. 1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act II, scene 2, line 401: ↩

  2. 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 54:12: ↩

  3. 1634, Thomas Herbert, A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. Into Afrique and the Greater Asia, especially the Territories of the Persian Monarchie: And some Parts of the Orientall Indies, and Iles Adiacent. Of their Religion, Language, Habit, Discent, Ceremonies, and other Matters Concerning Them: Together with the Proceedings and Death of the Three Late Ambassadours: Sir D. C[otton] Sir R. S[herley] and the Persian Nogdi-Beg: As also the Two Great Monarchs, the King of Persia, and the Great Mogol, London: William Stansby for Iacob Bloome, →OCLC; republished as William Foster, editor, Travels in Persia 1627–1629. Abridged and Edited by Sir William Foster […] with an Introduction and Notes (Broadway Travellers), London: G. Routledge & Sons, 1928, →OCLC, page 79: ↩

  4. 1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 432: ↩

  5. 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 155: ↩