Alphabe Thursday R is for Red

Red, (crimson or scarlet)  is one of the ancient dyes in the Middle ages it was called kermes from the Sanskrit kirmidja meaning derived from a worm.The Hebrew word for it was tola’at shani for worm scarlet. The red compound is extracted from a wingless insect , Kermes vermilio, that lives in the scarlet oak Quercus coccifera that grows in the Near East, Spain, southern France and southern Italy.  The dye is obtained by crushing the insect and boiling them in lye.

Kermes is the linguistic root of the English crimson and carmine and the French cramoise; but because the kermes insects encrusted on a branch looked like a cluster of berries, the ancient  Greek   writers referred to them as kokkos meaning berry. However, another writer of the time thought the insects had a more vegetative appearance and preferred to call the red dye granum meaning grain.

Because of the long lasting nature of the dye the phrase was used to mean deeply or permanently red from this comes the English in grained.

In the 4th century St Jerome confused by all this decided to use the term vermiculum meaning little worm.  From this came the vermilion a synthetic red pigment made from sulphur and mercury not the juice of berries or crushed insects … I am in debt to Philip Ball in Bright Earth.