orchil
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of several lichens, especially those of the genera Roccella and Lecanora.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The purple dye, orcein, extracted from them (especially Lecanora tartarea) and often used as substitute for Tyrian purple.
Countable; Uncountable
Etymology
From Middle English orchell, from Old French orchel, orseil, from Old Catalan orxella (influenced by dialectal Arabic [script needed] ('urjālla)), from Italian oricello, from Latin ōricilla, diminutive of ōricula (variant of auricula), both diminutives of auris (“ear”)) + illa (a double diminutive suffix) or from auris (“ear”) + cula + illa. The name of the dye was influenced by the visual resemblance of the lichen used in production to a small ear.