vermeil - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Proto-Indo-European *-lós
Proto-Indo-European *-elós
English vermeil
From Middle English vermayle, from Old French vermeil (“vermilion”), from Latin vermiculus (“little worm”), from vermis (“worm”), ultimately in reference to Kermes vermilio, a type of scale insect used to make a crimson dye. Doublet of vermicule.
vermeil (comparative more vermeil, superlative most vermeil)
- (poetic, now rare) Bright scarlet, vermilion.
- 1818, John Keats, Endymion[1], Book I, lines 49-51:
Many and many a verse I hope to write,
Before the daisies, vermeil rimm’d and white,
Hide in deep herbage;
- 1818, John Keats, Endymion[1], Book I, lines 49-51:
- (poetic, now rare) Specifically of faces, lips etc.: red, ruddy, healthy-looking.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 36, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
his carriage; demeanor, and venerable behaviour, in a face so young, vermeill, and heart enflaming […]. - 1820, Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer:
a lip as vermeil as her own. (IV, xxx)
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 36, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
French vermeil work
vermeil (plural vermeils)
- (poetic) Vermilion; bright red.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
The mortall steele stayed not till it was seene / To gore her side; yet was the wound not deepe, / But lightly rased her soft silken skin, / That drops of purple blood thereout did weepe, / Which did her lilly smock with staines of vermeil steep.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Silver gilt or gilt bronze.
- A liquid composition applied to a gilded surface to give luster to the gold.
Inherited from Middle French vermeil, from Old French vermeil, syncopated form of Latin vermiculus (“little worm”).
vermeil (feminine vermeille, masculine plural vermeils, feminine plural vermeilles)
vermeil m (plural vermeils)
- vermeil (gold-plated silver with a reddish hue)
- “vermeil”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
From Old French vermeil.
vermeil m (feminine singular vermeille, masculine plural vermeils, feminine plural vermeilles)
From Vulgar Latin *vermiclus, syncopated form of Latin vermiculus (“little worm”).
vermeil m (oblique and nominative feminine singular vermeile)