English▸ noun [mass noun] a brilliant deep blue pigment originally obtained from lapis lazuli, now made from powdered fired clay, sodium carbonate, sulphur, and resin:
[as modifier] ultramarine blue.
▪ a brilliant deep blue colour:
the colour of the water deepened to ultramarine.
– ORIGIN late 16th century: from medieval Latin ultramarinus ‘beyond the sea’; the name of the pigment is from obsolete Italian (azzurro) oltramarino, literally ‘(azure) from overseas’.