Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A blue or green powder consisting of basic cupric acetate used as a paint pigment and fungicide.
- n. A green patina or crust of copper sulfate or copper chloride formed on copper, brass, and bronze exposed to air or seawater for long periods of time.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A substance obtained by exposing plates of copper to the air in contact with acetic acid, and much used as a pigment, as a mordant in dyeing wool black, in calico-printing, and in gilding, in several processes in the chemical arts, and in medicine. Verdigris, like all the compounds into which copper enters, is poisonous; and it is very apt to form on the surface of copper utensils, owing to the action of vegetable juices. It is, chemically, a crystalline salt known as the basic acetate of copper. It ranges in hue from green to greenish-blue, according to the proportions of acetic acid and copper contained. As a pigmeut it is fairly permanent, but has little body, and is generally used only as a glazing color.
- To cause to be coated with verdigris; cover or coat with verdigris.
Wiktionary
- n. A blue-green patina that forms on copper-containing metals.
- n. chemistry, dated Copper acetate.
- n. The colour of this patina or material.
- v. To cover, or coat, with verdigris.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Chem.) A green poisonous substance used as a pigment and drug, obtained by the action of acetic acid on copper, and consisting essentially of a complex mixture of several basic copper acetates.
- n. colloq. The green rust formed on copper.
- v. rare To cover, or coat, with verdigris.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a blue or green powder used as a paint pigment
- v. color verdigris
- n. a green patina that forms on copper or brass or bronze that has been exposed to the air or water for long periods of time
Etymologies
- From french vert-de-gris. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English vertegrez, from Old French verte grez, alteration of vert-de-Grice : verd, green; see verdant + de, of (from Latin dē; see de-) + Grice, Greece. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In the same way they put in plates of copper and make verdigris, which is called "aeruca.”
“The trace of tarnished copper, commonly called verdigris, poisoned the wholesome draught; a minute dose administered by stealth did incalculable mischief.”
“There is a school of thought that says the alchemists mistook vitriol for verdigris, which is copper (II) acetate.”
“Orpiment made a brilliant yellow pigment, but it turned an unattractive dark shade when mixed with or placed close to copper - or lead-based colors such as verdigris or vermilion.”
“Some organic acids form copper salts, which generally are toxic, such as verdigris induced by acetic, lactic or tartaric acids.”
“With regard to the colic, I think it is occasioned by the verdigris which is mixed with every thing they eat or drink.”
“* littlebuhnee: crocheted treasure tote ( "Choosing of the Fairest") * sealgair: earrings: Turquoise, copper wire & "verdigris" feathers.”
“She held the verdigris watering can in one muddy hand.”
“I can see the maple tree outside the window, and beyond it, the old field on one side and the park with the verdigris Revolutionary War statue on the other.”
“The art-house chain MK2 has two multiplexes on either side of the Canal de l'Ourcq and a jaunty, white electric boat that shuttles across the verdigris water.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘verdigris’.
-
phrontistery-v
from phrontistery.info
vulviform, vulvar, vulturine, vulpine, vulpicide, vulpecular, vulnerose, vulsella, vulnerary, vulnerate, vulgus, vulgo and 396 more...
-
Open List: Greens
A lits of greens: cooked leafy vegetables; pigments, paint names, compound words, etc; words and phrases that pertain to or contain "green". Please add your favorites!
See this list f...greenery, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, green shoots, viridian green, malachite green, sap green, green grocer, radish greens, beet greens, spring green and 282 more...
-
Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
-
Ballardian
All things descriptive from JG
Ballardoperation mindfuck, pataphysics, wahrheitssensible..., polymorphism, postprandial, covalent, stygian, lucus a non lucendo, kafkaesque, leitmotif, fugacious, ablate and 77 more...
-
Pesky
Pesky pronunciations
perspicacious, carminative, eleemosynary, katzenjammer, cognomen, xanthin, weltanschauung, wahrheitssensible..., entropic doom, dietrologia, lontanaza, überrNoch and 22 more...
-
doubtlessly reduntant
pedentive, pendentive, fantod, nonpareil, apposite, anfractuous, amanuensis, sherbet, erumpent, verdigris, styptic, tektitic and 24 more...
-
♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
-
....the prison library
// god mandated attempt to realign with the timeless forces of the universe via remastered locution //
desultory, dénouement, demesne, dalliance, chatoyant, antechamber, akimbo, cacography, germane, cuboid, miasma, mordant and 89 more...
-
Colors
Words for colors, including things so associated with a color that they can be used in reference to a color.
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, purple, navy, lavender, turquoise, chartreuse and 218 more...
-
Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
-
color me mauve
color words
albescent, ecru, eggshell, mauve, taupe, ochre, ashen, goldenrod, gamboge, cream, saffron, mustard and 109 more...
-
(more or less) Temporary Urth List
Temporary list is temporary.
Collecting a few words here, which are then to be alloted to other lists.vassal, gnaw, putrescence, liege, pederasty, disseminate, loot, waning, fitful, hiatuse, plow, pious and 292 more...
-
thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
-
good ones
grumble, fumble, bumble, stumble, crumble, mumble, jumble, humble, bramble, scramble, amble, ramble and 191 more...
-
summer words 2009
how many words can I make mine this summer?
largess, hoyden, catholic, fornicatress, quean, slattern, bildungsroman, sybaritic, descresent, nodus, frittle, callipygian and 529 more...
-
Joe's list
Fissiparous Weekly Standard Nigeria a fissiparous country 3/2012
fissiparous, inchoate, punctilious, synecdoche, apocryphal, superadd, pedant, pedagogy, astigmatic, inter alia, aphoristically, eponymous and 131 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for verdigris.

Prolagus And one day, he'll say to me, "Elphaba,
A girl who is so superior,
Shouldn't a girl who's so good inside
Have a matching exterior?
And since folks here to an absurd degree
Seem fixated on your verdigris.
Would it be all right by you
If I de-greenify you?"
(The Wizard and I, from the musical Wicked) Feb 11, 2009
mechanolatry Also called aerugo. Jan 29, 2009
chained_bear "The manufacture of verdigris, for example, occupied about eight hundred families and brought in as much as 800,000 livres a year. It was made in the cellars of ordinary homes, where copper plates were stacked in clay pots filled with distilled wine. The women of the household scraped the 'verdet' (copper acetate) off the plates once a week. Agents collected it, going from house to house; and large merchant firms ... marketed it everywhere in Europe."
—Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre, And Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York: Vintage Books, 1984), 114 Sep 22, 2008
shoepixie There are so many many many words for the colour of green that are actually quite lovely...Red-words get all the credit, boo! Apr 15, 2008
halcyonwhimsy This is my all time favorite word for a color (green).
This word has a chemistry and artistic background and is quite a rare color to obtain/find naturally.
It has been, I believe, re-popularized by its use in the musical Wicked. Oct 2, 2007