Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ From Skr kṛ́mi-jā ‘(red dye) produced by a worm’, composed of kṛ́mi-ḥ ‘worm’ (from IE *kʷrmi‑ ‘worm’) and ‑jā‑ ‘produced’ (from IE *gene‑).
▪ The Ar word is (via mLat and It) at the origin of Engl kermes and crimson as well as related words in many other Eur langs.
▪ The shield-louse was esteemed »from ancient times as a source of red and scarlet dye. The dye is harvested from pregnant females, which in that state resemble small roundish grains about the size of peas and cling immobile to the tree on which they live« (a species of oak, the kermes oak). »Cloths dyed with kermes are of a deep red colour; and though much inferior in brilliancy to the scarlet cloths dyed with real Mexican cochineal, they retain the colour better and are less liable to stain. The tapestries of Brussels and other parts of Flanders, which have scarcely lost any thing of their original brilliancy, even after a lapse of 200 years, were all dyed with kermes«¹ – EtymOnline.

1. W.T. Brande, Dictionary of Science, Literature, & Art, London, 1842.

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Rolland2014a: Ar qirmiz ‘carmin, cramoisi; kermès, alkermès’, from Skr kṛ́mi-jā »‘né du ver’ qui, selon la sorte de ver, désigne la soie ou la couleur rouge issue de la cochenille’« < IE *kʷrmi- ‘worm’

▪ Ar qirmiz ‘kermes’ was loaned into mLat as cremesinus ‘id.’, whence it spread into several Eur langs, cf. It carmesino, cremisino, carminio, Fr cramoisi, carmin, Span carmesí, carmín, quérmes, Port carmesim, carmim, Rum cărmîz (forms in -in under the influence of Lat minium); Du karmezijn, karmozijn, karmijn, Engl kermes ‘shield louse’, Ge karmin; Ru karmin, karmazin, Pol karmazyn ‘scarlet-red’, kiermes, alkiermes ‘ kermes, cochenille’, Cz karmazin, Ukr karmazyn, Serb grimiz ‘purpur red’, Bulg kъrmъz – , Lokotsch1927#1219.
▪ Engl kermes (n.) ‘shield louse’, c1600, of the insect preparation used as a dye, etc.; 1590 s of the species of oak on which the insects live. »Kermes dyes have been found in burial wrappings in Anglo-Scandinavian York, but the use of kermes dyes seems to have been lost in Europe from the Dark Ages until eC15. It fell out of use again with the introduction of cochineal from the New World« – .
▪ Engl crimson (n.), eC15, ‘deep red color’, from oSpan cremesin ‘of or belonging to the kermes’ (the shield-louse insects from which a deep red dye was obtained), from mLat cremesinus (see kermes). For similar transfer of the dye word to generic use for ‘red’, compare oChSlav čruminu, Ru čermnyj ‘red’, from the same source – .
▪ Cf. also Tu kırmızı (first mentioned 1303 as cremizi in the Codex Cumanicus) – NişanyanSözlük (03Aug2015).

► qirmizī, adj., 1 crimson, carmine; 2 scarlet | al-ḥummà al-qirmiziyyaẗ, n.f., scarlet fever (med.)

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