красный

Inherited from Old East Slavic красьнъ (krasĭnŭ), красьнꙑи (krasĭnyi, “beautiful, good”), from Proto-Slavic *krasьnъ (“beautiful”). The sense “red” is unique to Russian and did not develop in other Slavic descendants of *krasьnъ; first attested in 1515 in Muscovite diplomatic correspondence, it serves as the primary sense of the word in the modern Russian language.

For sense development, compare кра́ска (kráska, “paint”), original sense hypothesized to be “blush” or “decoration”, and to кра́сить (krásitʹ, “to color”), original sense “to decorate”. Also compare Votic kauniz.

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• IPA^(key): [ˈkrasnɨj]

кра́сный • (krásnyj) (comparative (по)красне́е or (по)красне́й, superlative красне́йший, diminutive кра́сненький, augmentative красню́щий)

1. red

   red color:

   Кра́сная А́рмия ― Krásnaja Ármija ― the Red Army

   Кра́сная кни́га ― Krásnaja kníga ― the Red List (of threatened species)

   кра́сная строка́ ― krásnaja stroká ― indented line (traditionally inked in red in old manuscripts)

2. (archaic, poetic) beautiful

   кра́сна(я) де́вица ― krásna(ja) dévica ― beautiful girl

   кра́сный у́гол ― krásnyj úgol ― icon corner (literally, “beautiful corner”)

   кра́сный това́р ― krásnyj továr ― cloth (literally, “beautiful goods”)

• а́лый (ályj), черво́нный (červónnyj)
• краси́вый (krasívyj)

кра́сный • (krásnyj) m anim (genitive кра́сного, nominative plural кра́сные, genitive plural кра́сных, feminine кра́сная)

1. (history, politics) a Red; a member of the Red Guard

   Synonym: красноарме́ец (krasnoarméjec)

   Antonym: бе́лый (bélyj)

• Shansky, N. M., editor (1982), “красный”, in Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), volume 2, issue 8 (К), Moscow: Moscow University Press, page 375