verdigris

Definition

A blue-green patina or rust that forms on copper-containing metals.

Etymology

From Middle English vertegrez, 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”).

Example Sentences

• "Let's to^([sic]) the museum. Cannon-balls; arrow-heads; Roman glass and a forceps green with verdigris."
• "[…]there were three small brass coins there, the gift of Ymar. Their legends, like their faces, had worn away; and they were dark with verdigris — in appearance precisely the ancient things they were."
• "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."