English

Alternative forms

• vermile

Adjective

vermeil ‎(comparative more vermeil, superlative most vermeil)

French vermeil work

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 […].

2. (poetic, now rare) Specifically of faces, lips etc.: red, ruddy, healthy-looking.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.36:

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

Noun

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.

French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *vermiclus, from Latin vermiculus ‎(“little worm”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɛʁmɛj/

Adjective

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

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

Noun

vermeil m ‎(plural vermeils)

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

Middle French

Etymology

Old French vermeil.

Adjective

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

1. vermillion

Descendants

• French: vermeil

References

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

Old French

Alternative forms

• vermail
• vermoil

Adjective

vermeil m ‎(oblique and nominative feminine singular vermeile)

1. vermillion

Declension

Descendants

• English: vermeil (borrowed)
• French: vermeil