kermes

• These oak, Quercus coccifera, or kermes oak, were historically important as the food plant of the kermes beetle from which a cochineal type of red dye was produced. —  Notes from Spain: Travel, Living in Spain, Podcasts, Forum and Photos
• It is frequently adulterated with earthy substances, such as brickdust, red ochre, and colcotha VERMILIONS Vermilion is so called from the Italian word vermiglio (little worm,) given to the kermes or "coccus ilicis," which was used as a scarlet dye before the introduction of cochineal. —  Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists
• As a colouring matter, kermes is only about one-twelfth part as powerful as that substance 104. —  Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists
• On account, probably, of its extreme costliness, it was frequently the custom to dye the cloth with a ground of kermes or alkanet, previous to applying the Tyrian purple. —  Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists
• This furnishes what the ignorant-learned long called grains of kermes, looking like dried currants, which they mistook for the fruit of a tree, while it is, in truth, the dried body of an insect. —  The Actress in High Life An Episode in Winter Quarters

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms