verdigris

英文词源

verdigris

verdigris: [14] Etymologically, verdigris means ‘green of Greece’. It comes from Old French vertegrez, a conflation of vert de Grece ‘green of Greece’ (vert came from Latin viridis ‘green’, which also gave English verdant [16] and verdure [14] and may be related to Old English wīse ‘sprout, stalk’, Old Norse vísir ‘bud, sprout’, and Lithuanian veisti ‘propagate’). The reason for the application of the term to the patina on copper is not known.
=> verdant, verdure

verdigris (n.)

c. 1300, vertegrez, from Old French verte grez (13c.), verte de Grece (late 12c.), literally "green of Greece," from obsolete French verd, from Latin viridis (see verdure). The reason for it being called that is not known. In other languages, "green of Spain" (German grünspan, Danish spanskgrönt, Dutch spaansch-groen), from Medieval Latin viride Hispanum. Current spelling in English is from 1789. In chemistry, confined to a basic copper acetate; popularly applied to the green encrustation on copper or brass exposed to the air.