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kermes

noun
/ˈkɝ.miz/US

Etymology

PIE word *kʷŕ̥mis First attested ca. 1600, from French kermès, from Medieval Latin cremesinus (compare Italian chermes, Spanish carmes), from Arabic قِرْمِز (qirmiz) (whence also Portuguese quermes, alquermes), from a Persian word meaning “worm-colored” (compare modern Persian قرمز (qermez)), ultimately Proto-Indo-Iranian *kŕ̥miš (“worm”), possibly via borrowing from a Sanskrit formation. Related to carmine and crimson. For the semantic development, compare vermilion from Latin vermis (“worm”) and its cognates.

  1. derived from *kŕ̥miš✻ — “worm”
  2. derived from قِرْمِز
  3. derived from cremesinus
  4. borrowed from kermès

Definitions

  1. Any of several insects of the genus Kermes.

  2. A crimson dye made from the crushed bodies of these insects.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for kermes. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA