Kohl (cosmetics)
Kohl is an ancient eye cosmetic, traditionally made by grinding stibnite (Sb2S3) - for similar purposes to charcoal used in mascara. It is widely used in South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of West Africa as eyeliner to contour and/or darken the eyelids and as mascara for the eyelashes. It is worn mostly by women, but also by some men and children.
Kohl has also been used in India as a cosmetic for a long time. In addition, mothers would apply kohl to their infants' eyes soon after birth. Some did this to "strengthen the child's eyes", and others believed it could prevent the child from being cursed by the evil eye.
The Arabic name كحل kuḥl and the Biblical Hebrew כחל kaḥal (cf. modern Hebrew "blue") are cognates, from a Semitic root k-ḥ-l. Transliteration variants of Arabic dialectal pronunciation include kohl or kuhl.
The Persian word for kohl is sormeh.
It is known as either surmah or kājal in South Asia.
In West Africa, it is also known as tozali or kwalli.
The English word is a loan of the Arabic word (via Middle Latin and French; originally in the sense "powder of antimony"; the modern meaning is from the 18th century).
The Russian word for antimony, , is a loan from the Persian term.
The Greek and Latin terms for antimony, stibium, στίβι, στίμμι, were borrowed from the Egyptian name sdm.
Kohl has been worn traditionally since the Protodynastic Period of Egypt (ca. 3100 BCE) by Egyptian queens and noble women, who used stibnite (the sulfide of antimony rather than of lead). The cosmetic palettes used for its preparation assumed a prominent role in the late Predynastic Egyptian culture.
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