vermeil

• vermile

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɜː.meɪl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈvɝ.mɪl/, /ˈvɝ.meɪl/

vermeil (comparative more vermeil, superlative most vermeil)

1. (poetic, now rare) Bright scarlet, vermilion.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

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

   • 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;

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, 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)

vermeil (plural vermeils)

1. (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.

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

• vermillion

• vermile

Inherited from Middle French vermeil, from Old French vermeil, syncopated form of Latin vermiculus (“little worm”).

• IPA^(key): /vɛʁ.mɛj/

• Audio:

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vermeil (feminine 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 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)

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