Etymology: < medieval Latin carneolus cornelian; diminutive of Latin carneus fleshy, with the sense of ‘slightly flesh-coloured’; but perhaps an alteration of the forms in corn- under the influence of this supposed derivation.

Etymology: Apparently < French corneole (1538 or earlier) < post-classical Latin corneola (1516 in an Italian source or earlier), corniola (1532 or earlier), both referring to a plant used in dyeing; the post-classical Latin word is identified at its first known appearance as a popular form, and may therefore be < Italian corniola, plant used for yellow dye (1540 or earlier).The identity of the plant called corneole or corneola was not always clear in the 16th century. Compare R. Estienne, Dictionarium latino-gallicum (1538), s.v. acesis, ‘Vne herbe no[m]mee Corneole aucunesfois Solcie aquatique’. In his Dictionarium (1536), Estienne took acesis (on the basis of a misreading of Pliny, Nat. hist. 33. 92) to be an alternative name for lutum, ‘weld’ or ‘yellow weed’ (see luteous adj.¹), a plant used in dyeing. However, his alternative name solcie aquatique ‘water sage’, and an early Latin occurrence, F. Grapaldo De uerborum explicatione (1516), f. 55r, ‘Lysimachia herba uulgo ut rentur aliqui Corneola’, both suggest confusion with lysimachia. V. Cordus corrects this in his annotations on Dioscorides (1549), p. 501, writing that corneola does not grow in moist places whereas lysimachia does, and adding that corneola is equivalent to German Gilbekraut (Gilbkraut, plant used for yellow dye), while lysimachia is equivalent to German Weiderich (name of various plants, including lysimachia). Compare also French cornelle (1546 or earlier), corneille (1576 or earlier), both denoting yellow loosestrife, water sage.