Kermes meaning

kûr'mēz
A red dyestuff once prepared from the dried bodies of various female scale insects of the genus Kermes.
noun
0
0
The dried bodies of the females of certain soft scale insects (genus Kermes), used for making a purple-red dye.
noun
0
0
This dye.
noun
0
0
A small, evergreen Mediterranean oak (Quercus coccifera) on which the kermes insects are found.
noun
0
0
A taxonomic genus within the family Kermesidae — the kermes insects.
pronoun
0
0
Advertisement

Origin of kermes

French kermès short for alkermès from Arabic al-qirmiz the kermes probably from Sanskrit kṛmi-ja- (red dye) produced by worms kwr̥mi- in Indo-European roots

Sentence Examples

  • coccifera, a small bush growing in Spain and many countries around the Mediterranean, furnishes the kermes dye ([[Kermes).

  • kermes), the pistachio or terebinth tree, the sumach (Rhus pentaphila), and other species of Rhus which are widely spread.

  • Until about 1725 the belief was very prevalent that cochineal was the seed of a plant, but Dr Martin Lister in 1672 conjectured it to be a kind of kermes, and in 1703 Antony van Leeuwenhoek ascertained its true nature by aid of the microscope.

  • Since its introduction cochineal has supplanted kermes (Coccus ilicis) over the greater part of Europe.

  • The Sanskrit word is krimi, which has given kermes, the cochineal insect, whence "crimson."

More sentences →

Words near kermes in the Dictionary