Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several lichens, chiefly of the genera Roccella and Lecanora, from which a dye is obtained.
- n. The violet dyestuff obtained from any of these organisms.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Same as archil.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of several lichens, especially those of the genera Roccella and Lecanora.
- n. The dye, orcein, extracted from them.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. See archil.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various lecanoras that yield the dye archil
- n. a purplish dye obtained from orchil lichens
Etymologies
- Middle English orchell, ultimately from Old Catalan orxella, perhaps of Mozarabic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In 1758, Cuthbert Gordon received a British patent for a substance he called cudbear, the result of a new processing method he developed for the traditional dyestuff orchil.”
“The coloring parts of resinous (resin-like) dyestuffs are extracted from substances that are insoluble in water, for example annatto, indigo, carthamus, and orchil.”
“He found that such fugitive colors as orchil, safflower, and indigo-carmine fade very rapidly in moist air, less rapidly in dry air, and that they experience little or no change in hydrogen or in a vacuum.”
“Turmeric, orchil, catechu, and indigo carmine are all extremely fugitive.”
“A woaded color, for example, is only fast in respect of the vat indigo which it contains, and yet how frequent is the custom to unite with the indigo such dyes as barwood, orchil, and indigo-carmine, the fugitive character of which I have pointed out.”
“On some of the rugged masses of masonry grew large hoary tufts of the strange roccella or orchil-weed, which yields the famous purple dye -- with which, in all likelihood, the robes of the Cæsars were coloured -- and which gave wealth, rank, and name to one princely”
“After a few remarks on the chemical constitution of orchil and litmus, as given by Kane, Gelis, Pereira, and others, he discussed the subject of decolorisation of weak infusions of orchil and litmus by exclusion of atmospheric air, and by various deoxidising agents, and the different theories as to the causation of this phenomenon.”
“Their utility in the arts, and especially in dyeing -- including the collection of a series of the commercial dye lichens, _i. e._, those used by the manufacturers of London, &c., in the making of orchil, cudbear, litmus, and other lichen dyes.”
“He supposes, in a word, that for every colored substance existing in orchil and litmus, there is a corresponding white one, producible by the action of sulphuretted hydrogen, &c.; and, in proof of this theory, he mentions having obtained from Azolitmine and Betaorceine colorless bodies, to which he gave the respective names of Leuco-litmine and Leuco-orceine.”
“Pliny, down to the present day, sketching briefly the ancient end modern history of orchil, cudbear, and litmus, and specifying the native use of lichen-dyes in different, countries of Europe, Asia, and America.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘orchil’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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color (red)
tiara's color lists rebuilt :)
( visual, colors, red, descriptive, randomness )red, Red, Pink, Cloud, Salmon, Rose, Coral(Pink/Red/Dark), Cramoisy/Modena/C..., Raspberry, Rubious/Ruby, Tomato, Sanguineous/Blood and 483 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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In The Colorhouse
A colorhouse - a manufactory of colors for tints, dyes, pigments, paints, glazes, &c. Terms associated with the science and history of colormaking.
All sorts of things went into color...colorhouse, Turkey red, dyebath, woad, ocher, lead white, mordant, Naples yellow, zaffer, kiln, vat, pot and 298 more...
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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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Words I Learned on FreeRice.com
A place for me to keep all these weird words, whether I guessed them correctly or not.
pennoncel, serval, tautological, redact, ganef, candent, shaitan, bifid, osteal, ensiform, helve, ecdysis and 100 more...
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Dyes & Pigments
gamboge, anil, catechu, cinnabar, vermilion, ponceau, cochineal, kermes, lac, eosin, azure, indigo and 134 more...
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Stellar Six-Letter Words
I've been meaning to make this list for at least a year, to go with Really Cool Two-Letter Words, Three-Letter Words, Four-Letter Words, Slightly Less Cool Four-Letter Words, and Five-Letter Words....
degust, tattoo, quahog, anoxia, acetic, rugose, bathos, umlaut, mohawk, python, harbor, panzer and 78 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for orchil.

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