Vermilion

King James Dictionary

Vermilion a. vermil'yon. L. vermiculus, vermes a name sometimes improperly given to the kermes. See Crimson.

1. The cochineal, a small insect found on a particular plant. Improper or obsolete. 2. Red sulphuret of mercury a bright, beautiful red color of two sorts, natural and artificial. The natural is found in silver mines, in the form of a ruddy sand, which is to be prepared by purification or washing, and then levigated with water on a stone. The factitious or common vermilion is made of artificial cinnabar, ground with white wine, and afterwards with the white of an egg. 3. Any beautiful red color. In blushing, the delicate cheek is covered with vermilion.

VERMILION, vermil'yon. To dye red to cover with a delicate red.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) A bright red pigment consisting of mercuric sulphide, obtained either from the mineral cinnabar or artificially. It has a fine red color, and is much used in coloring sealing wax, in printing, etc.

(2): ( n.) Hence, a red color like the pigment; a lively and brilliant red; as, cheeks of vermilion.

(3): ( v. t.) To color with vermilion, or as if with vermilion; to dye red; to cover with a delicate red.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A brilliant red color, resembling scarlet,  Jeremiah 22:14;  Ezekiel 23:14 . The vermilion now used is a sulphuret of mercury.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

VERMILION . See Colours, 4.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( שָׁשֵׁר [in pause שָׁשִׁר ] ,Shasher, accord. to Gesen. from its Versicolor, but Red accord. to F Ü rst, who compares the Sanscr. Har ) , prob. Red Ochre (Vulg. Sinopis, i.e. Rubrica Sinopensis, which was the best [Pliny, Hist. Nat. 35:5,13]; Sept. Μίλτος , which in Homer is i.q. Rubrica ) , or (according to the Heb. interp.) Cinnabar. This well-known metallic paint was first brought into use by the Phoenicians, who imported large quantities of it in the form of a reddish sand from their colonies in Northern Africa. Its bright-red color recommended vermilion to those who were engaged in decorating temples ( Jeremiah 22:14); hence, whenever it was mentioned in Scripture, it was usually associated with idolatry. Thus, Ezekiel, reproving the apostasy of his times, declares that Aholibah "added to her idolatries, for she saw men portrayed upon the wall, images of Chaldaeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, after the manner of the Babylonians, even of Chaldnea" ( Ezekiel 23:14). He adds, "and she doted upon them as soon as she cast her eyes on them." These were, in fact, the representations of the Chaldaean idols, which many of the Jews were seduced into worshipping. The author of the apocryphal Book of Wisdom also alludes to this custom: "The carpenter taketh the very refuse of his timber, being a crooked piece of wood, and full of knots, and carving it diligently when he had nothing else to do, and fashioning it into the image of a man, or like some wild beast, laying it over with vermilion and with paint, coloring it red, and covering every spot therein" ( Wisdom of Solomon 13:14). The accuracy of the prophet is corroborated by the recently exhumed Assyrian monuments. M. Botta noticed several figures on the walls of Khorsabad yet retaining a portion of the vermilion (Bonomi, Nineveh, p. 206). There is in the British Museum, among the marbles sent from Nimrud by Mr. Layard, a large slab with a figure of the king standing, holding in his right hand a staff, and resting his left on the pommel of his sword, still having the soles of his sandals colored red. (See Color).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

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