a. and sb. arch. (In earlier use chiefly Sc.) Forms: 5 cremesye, -ysy, cramysse, 5–6 crammas(s)y, 6 cram(m)esy, -osie, -osye, 7 crambassie, cramoisy, (arch. 8 cramasie, 9 -asye, -oisy, -ie, -ay). [a. early It. cremesí and OF. crameisi, later cramoisi = Sp. carmesí, Pg. carmezim; the original type is seen in It. chermesí, chermizí, a. Arab. qirmazī of or belonging to the qirmiz, KERMES or ALKERMES, the Scarlet Grain insect: see CRIMSON. Since the 16th c. there has been a tendency to assimilate the spelling to modern French cramoisi, which has been facilitated by the fact that the word is itself obsolete and the tradition of its English spelling and pronunciation broken.]
A. adj. Crimson.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 153. Crymysy velvet.
1495. Haliburton’s Ledger, in C. Innes, Scotl. in Mid. Ages, 244. 3 ells cramysse satyn.
a. 1555. Lyndesay, Trag., Prol. 21. In Rayment reid … Oft vellot and of Saityng Crammosie.
c. 1600. Christening Chas. I., in Nichols, Progr. Q. Eliz., III. 527. Two chairs of cramoisy velvet.
1612. Inv. Furniture, in A. McKay, Hist. Kilmarnock, 308. Stampit crambassie vorset courteinis.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr. (1858), 105. A blustering figure … in … cramoisy velvet, or other uncertain texture.
1855. Mrs. Gaskell, North & S., iii. He gathered for her some velvety cramoisy roses.
B. sb. Crimson cloth; CRIMSON sb. 2.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., cix. Als like ȝe bene, as day is to the nyght; Or sek-cloth is vnto fyne cremesye.
1488. Inv. Jewels, in Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), II. 392/1. A belt of crammassy hernessit with gold & braid.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., III. 282. Couerit weill with crammasy rycht fyne.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1733), I. 89. Sae put on your pearlins, Marion, And kyrtle of the cramasie.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 224. I thought to see my daughter ride, In golden gear and cramasye.
1821. Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Ld. John, xii. With a vest of cramoisie meet.
Cramoysen, -in, obs. ff. CRIMSON.
