Dictionary

vermeil en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /vɚˈmeɪ/ (US)
• /ˈvɜː.meɪl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈvɝ.mɪl/ (US)
• /ˈvɝ.meɪl/ (US)
• /vɚˈmeɪl/ (US)
• /ˈvɝməl/ (US)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis Proto-Italic *wormis Latin vermis Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Proto-Italic *-kelos Latin -culus Latin vermiculus Vulgar Latin *vermiclus Old French vermeilbor. Middle English vermayle 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.

Meanings

1. (archaic, poetic) Bright scarlet, vermilion.
   • 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^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Endymion_(Keats)#Book_I), Book I, lines 49-51:
   • And in her cheekes the vermeill red did shew / Like roses in a bed of lillies shed[…]. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
2. (archaic, poetic) Specifically of faces, lips etc.: red, ruddy, healthy-looking.
   • a lip as vermeil as her own. (IV, xxx) 1820, Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer:
   • his carriage; demeanor, and venerable behaviour, in a face so young, vermeill, and heart enflaming[…]. 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 36, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

Forms

vermeil en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /vɚˈmeɪ/ (US)
• /ˈvɜː.meɪl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈvɝ.mɪl/ (US)
• /ˈvɝ.meɪl/ (US)
• /vɚˈmeɪl/ (US)
• /ˈvɝməl/ (US)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis Proto-Italic *wormis Latin vermis Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Proto-Italic *-kelos Latin -culus Latin vermiculus Vulgar Latin *vermiclus Old French vermeilbor. Middle English vermayle 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.

Meanings

1. (poetic) Vermilion; bright red.
   • 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:
2. Silver gilt or gilt bronze.
3. A liquid composition applied to a gilded surface to give luster to the gold.

Forms

Deriveds

vermeiled · envermeil

Relateds

vermillion