verdigris

English

The copper roof of a water tower in Denmark, green with verdigris.

Doors with verdigris at RuhrCongress Bochum, a conference center in Bochum, Germany.

A Chinese coin with verdigris.

Etymology

From French vert-de-gris (literally “green of Greece”).

Pronunciation

(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɝ.də.ɡɹis/, /ˈvɝ.də.ɡɹɪs/
Audio (Southern England) (file)

Noun

verdigris (countable and uncountable, plural verdigrises)

A blue-green patina or rust that forms on copper-containing metals.
Synonym: aerugo
- 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, OCLC 19736994; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, OCLC 258624721, page 17:
  Let's to^[sic] the museum. Cannon-balls; arrow-heads; Roman glass and a forceps green with verdigris.
(chemistry, dated) Copper acetate.
Synonym: Spanish green
(color) The colour of this patina or material.
verdigris:
Synonym: Spanish green
- 1735, [John Barrow], “GREENS”, in Dictionarium Polygraphicum: Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested. [...], volume I (A–H), London: […] C[harles] Hitch and C[harles] Davis […], and S[amuel] Austen […], OCLC 987025732:
  Gamboge is one of the firſt yellows, which may be made to produce five or six ſorts of Green with verdegreaſe, according as the gambooge is in the greater or leſſer proportion; if it abounds, it will make a tolerable oak green, and being mixt with a greater quantity of verdegreaſe, it will make a fine graſs Green.

Related terms

verdigrisy

Translations

blue-green patina on copper and copper alloys

Armenian: ժանգառ (hy) (žangaṙ)
Assamese: কঁহ (kõh)
Basque: gardinga
Breton: mergl-kouevr m
Bulgarian: зеленясване n (zelenjasvane), патина (bg) f (patina)
Catalan: verdet (ca) m
Czech: měděnka f
Danish: ir (da) c
Dutch: groenspaan (nl) f
Esperanto: verdigro
Faroese: eirdømi n, árdømi n, eiring f
Finnish: patina (fi)
French: vert-de-gris (fr) m
German: Grünspan (de) m
Greek:
Ancient: ἰός χαλκοῦ m (iós khalkoû), ἰός m (iós)
Icelandic: spanskgræna f, eirgræna f, spansgræna f
Ido: verdigriso (io)
Irish: glasar m
Italian: verderame (it) m
Japanese: 緑青 (ja) (rokushō)
Khmer: ច្រែះ (km) (creh)
Korean: 녹청 (ko) (nokcheong)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: ژەنگ‎ (ku) (jeng)
Latin: aerūgō f
Norwegian:
Bokmål: irr n, eir n
Nynorsk: eir n
Persian: زنگار‎ (fa) (zangâr)
Polish: grynszpan (pl) m, patyna (pl) f
Portuguese: azinhavre m, verdete (pt) m
Russian: ярь-медя́нка (ru) f (jarʹ-medjánka), медя́нка (ru) f (medjánka)
Scottish Gaelic: meirg-umha f
Sicilian: virdirramu
Slovak: medenka f
Soussian: taluft (shi) f
Spanish: cardenillo m
Swedish: ärg (sv) c
Tagalog: taeng-tanso, taing-tanso
Telugu: కిలము (te) (kilamu)
Walloon: vert-di-gris m
Welsh: rhwd copr m, rhwd gwyrdd m

copper acetate

Polish: grynszpan (pl) m, patyna (pl) f

color

Catalan: verdet (ca) m
Classical Nahuatl: quilpālli
Japanese: 緑青色 (rokushōiro)
Polish: grynszpan (pl) m, patyna (pl) f
Welsh: gwyrddlas (cy)

Verb

verdigris (third-person singular simple present verdigrises, present participle verdigrising, simple past and past participle verdigrised)

To cover, or coat, with verdigris.
- 1853 August 4 – 1858 January 3 (date written), Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages from the English Note-books of Nathaniel Hawthorne, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1870, OCLC 3526454:
  […] there were always some wretched musicians, with an old fiddle, an old clarinet, and an old verdigrised brass bugle […]