Etymology

verdigris

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Today it means: A blue-green patina or rust that forms on copper-containing metals. Full definition →

Middle English vertegrece, verdegres ← Old French verte grez
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The story

  1. Old French · derived fromverte grez
  2. Middle English · derived fromvertegrece, verdegres
  3. English todayverdigris

From Middle English vertegrece, verdegres, from Old French verte grez (literally “acidic green”), an alteration of older verte de Grece (literally “green of Greece”). The modern French writing of this word is vert-de-gris (literally “green of gray”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.