noun
definition
Any of several insects of the genus Kermes.
definition
A crimson dye made from the crushed bodies of these insects.
Examples of kermes in a Sentence
Until about 1725 the belief was very prevalent that cochineal was the seed of a plant, but Dr Martin Lister in 1672 conjectured it to be a kind of kermes, and in 1703 Antony van Leeuwenhoek ascertained its true nature by aid of the microscope.
Since its introduction cochineal has supplanted kermes (Coccus ilicis) over the greater part of Europe.
The Sanskrit word is krimi, which has given kermes, the cochineal insect, whence "crimson."
The kermes insect was found on the kermes oak, a native of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Countries.
The walnut and oak (evergreen, holly-leaved and kermes) descend to the secondary heights, where they become mixed with alder, ash, khinjak, Arbor-vitae, juniper, with species of Astragalus, &c. Here also are Indigoferae and dwarf laburnum.
The word "grains" was early used, as also in French, of the small seed-like insects supposed formerly to be the berries of trees, from which a scarlet dye was extracted (see COCHINEAL and KERMES).