Forms: α. 6– verditer, 6 viriditer, 8 verdeter. β. 6 verdytor, 7 verditor. γ. 7–9 verditure, 7 virditur. [a. OF. verd de terre (later F. vert de terre), lit. ‘green of earth’: see VERD sb. Holland, Pliny (1601), II. 528 employs the OF. form.]
1. A kind of pigment of a green, bluish green, or (more freq.) light blue color, usu. prepared by adding chalk or whiting to a solution of nitrate of copper, and much used in making crayons and as a water-color.
α. 1505–6. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., III. 184. iij di. pund verditer; ilk pund vjs.
1558. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 94. Rosset j lb. viiid; verditer xiiijd.
1662. in Statutes at Large, Ireland (1765), II. 417. Verditer, the hundred weight,… £1 6s. 8d.
1674. W. Leybourne, Compl. Surveyor, 310. Verditer, washed and tempered with Gum-water, is a good Blew.
1738. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Dyeing, Bright green is first dyed blue, then back-boiled with braziletto, and verdeter.
1783. Priestley, in Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 406. An ounce of copper from verditer absorbed 403 ounce measures.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 150. Bremen blue, or verditer, a greenish blue colour obtained from copper mixed with chalk or lime. Ibid., 1275. Verditer, or Bremen Green … is a light powder, like magnesia, having a blue or bluish green colour.
1873. Beeton’s Dict. Comm., Sealing-Wax … is a composition of gum-lac, melted and incorporated with resin, and afterwards coloured with some pigment, as vermilion, verditer.
β. 1532. in E. Law, Hampton Crt. Pal. (1885), 363. 2 lb. of verdytor, at 16d. the lb.
1660. Act 12 Chas. II., c. 4 (1786), III. 157/2. Verditor, the hundred weight,… j li. vjs viijd.
γ. 1606. Peacham, Art Drawing, 54. Take your Verditure, and grind it with a weak Gum Arabick Water, it is the faintest and palest green that is.
1674. W. Leybourne, Compl. Surveyor, 310. Verditure washed and tempered with Gum water, makes a Green not transparent.
b. With particularizing terms, as blue, green, refined blue, refiners’ verditer.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxiv. ¶ 17. Virdigreace, and Green Virditur, for Greens…. But all must be ground with soft Varnish.
1732. J. Peele, Water-Colours, 62. Blue Verditer is a very bright, pleasant blue.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory (ed. 6), I. 184. Blue verditer or smalt, mixed with enamel, will make a good blue paint.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 504/2. It [blue carbonate of copper] is of a fine light blue colour, and known by the name of refiners’ verditer.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, s.v., There are refined blue, and green verditers.
1867. Bloxam, Chem., 345. The paint known as blue verditer is hydrated oxide of copper obtained by decomposing nitrate of copper with hydrate of lime.
c. Hence occas. in pl.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 72. For Smalts and verditures, I have been able with a microscope to perceive their particles very many of them transparent.
1835. G. Field, Chromatography, 113. These blues … as pigments are precisely of the character of verditers.
2. The blue or green color characteristic of verditer.
1819. H. Busk, Vestriad, V. 422. The sacred hill … Clad in bright verditure and Prussian blue.
1858. Sat. Rev., 20 Nov., 507/2. Flies … done in the brightest of verditer and ultramarine.
1877. Miss A. B. Edwards, Up Nile, vii. 185. The prevailing colours … are verditer and chocolate.
3. attrib. a. With names of colors, esp. verditer blue.
1551–2. in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 71. Grownde white leade, viijd. Verditer grene, ixd.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxiv. ¶ 17. Virditur Indico and Bice for Blews. Ibid. Virditur Indico … and Green Virditur.
1732. J. Peele, Water-Colours, 62. Verditer-Green is a light Green.
1857. Fraser’s Mag., LVI. 571. Greenish blue approaching in richness to verditer blue.
1864–5. Wood, Homes without H., xiii. (1868), 239. A large patch of feathers on the top of the head glows and flashes with metallic splendour, and is of a vivid verditer blue.
1891. G. E. Shelley, Catal. Birds Brit. Mus., XIX. 95. Throat verditer-blue, with paler blue central lines.
1901. Q. Rev., July, 18. The magnificent verditer-blue giant plantain-eater.
b. In the sense ‘of the color of verditer.’
1857. Fraser’s Mag., LVI. 571. A grayish white chin is followed by a verditer throat.
1893. Symonds, In the Key of Blue, 11.
| The men wring cloth that drips and takes | |
| Verditer hues of water-snakes. |
