red coral
- noun
:
coral rojo
- She purchased a pair of earrings made from red coral during her trip to the Mediterranean.
- pink and red coral
- Mediterranean red coral
- red coral fishery
Examples
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The necklace was adorned with stunning red coral beads, making it a beautiful piece of jewelry.
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Pink and red coral fisheries exist in the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
Academic text (1993) -
It is a red coral base with gold reflex.
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Several locales have dominated the trade in Mediterranean red coral through time, but the most powerful has been Naples and its vicinity.
Academic text (2009) -
Throughout the Mediterranean, red-coral fisheries have long followed a boom-and-bust cycle, tapping out one rich bank and then moving on to the next.
Academic text (2009) -
For millennia, red-coral branches were probably collected on Mediterranean shores, having washed up after storms.
Academic text (2009) -
We knew that Mediterranean red coral is generally thought to be overharvested; in fact, Catalonia's fisheries department had commissioned our project to help guide an update of its coral-fishing regulations.
Academic text (2009) -
Artisans carefully carved intricate designs from red coral to create unique ornaments for display.
Synonyms
1
1.3
A pink color that looks a little red
A red or pink coral from the Mediterranean Sea used for jewelry
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a coral that is red or pink and used for jewelry' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'red' (a color) with 'coral' (the stony marine animal or its jewelry-grade skeleton). Color + noun combinations are highly compositional and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer this sense.
Etymology
Red coral comes from the bright red, hard skeleton of a small sea animal that grows like tiny branches, and people long ago collected and carved this coral into beads and shapes. That's why red coral now means the red sea material used for 'jewelry' and 'ornaments'.