vermeil
/ˈvɝ.mɪl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.08 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Silver gilt or gilt bronze.
Example Sentences
- "And in her cheekes the vermeill red did shew / Like roses in a bed of lillies shed[…]."
- "Many and many a verse I hope to write, Before the daisies, vermeil rimm’d and white, Hide in deep herbage;"
- "his carriage; demeanor, and venerable behaviour, in a face so young, vermeill, and heart enflaming[…]."
- "a lip as vermeil as her own. (IV, xxx)"
- "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."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: vermayle, vermeil, vermiculus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈvɝ.mɪl/
- British English: /ˈvɜː.meɪl/