vermeil

• vermile

Borrowed 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.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈvəːmɪl/

vermeil (comparative more vermeil, superlative most vermeil)

1. (poetic, now rare) Bright scarlet, vermilion.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.3:

     And in her cheekes the vermeill red did shew / Like roses in a bed of lillies shed […].

   • 1818, John Keats, Endymion, 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;

2. (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, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     his carriage; demeanor, and venerable behaviour, in a face so young, vermeill, and heart enflaming […].

French vermeil work

vermeil (plural vermeils)

1. (poetic) Vermilion; bright red.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:

     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.

2. Silver gilt or gilt bronze.
3. A liquid composition applied to a gilded surface to give luster to the gold.

• vermillion

• vermile

From Middle French vermeil, from Old French vermeil, from Vulgar Latin *vermiclus, syncopated form of Latin vermiculus (“little worm”).

• IPA^(key): /vɛʁ.mɛj/

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vermeil (feminine singular vermeille, masculine plural vermeils, feminine plural vermeilles)

1. bright red; vermilion
2. (of mouth, lips, etc.) ruby; cherry
3. rosy

vermeil m (plural vermeils)

1. vermeil (gold-plated silver with a reddish hue)

• “vermeil” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Old French vermeil.

vermeil m (feminine singular vermeille, masculine plural vermeils, feminine plural vermeilles)

1. vermillion

• French: vermeil

• vermeil on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

• vermail
• vermoil

From Vulgar Latin *vermiclus, syncopated form of Latin vermiculus (“little worm”).

vermeil m (oblique and nominative feminine singular vermeile)

1. vermillion

• English: vermeil (borrowed)
• Middle French: vermeil
  • French: vermeil