Orchil
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any of several lichens, especially those of the genera Roccella and Lecanora. countable, uncountable
- 2 any of various lecanoras that yield the dye archil wordnet
- 3 The purple dye, orcein, extracted from them (especially Lecanora tartarea) and often used as substitute for Tyrian purple. countable, uncountable
- 4 a purplish dye obtained from orchil lichens wordnet
Etymology
From Middle English orchell, from Old French orchel, orseil, from Old Catalan orxella (influenced by dialectal Arabic [script needed] ('urjālla)), from Italian oricello, from Latin ōricilla, diminutive of ōricula (variant of auricula), both diminutives of auris (“ear”)) + illa (a double diminutive suffix) or from auris (“ear”) + cula + illa. The name of the dye was influenced by the visual resemblance of the lichen used in production to a small ear.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.