Forms: 6 archall, 7 -al, 8 -el, arcel(1, 8–9 archil. [a corruption of the more correct ORCHIL, in 15th c. orchell, a. OF. orchel, orcheil (late orseil), ad. It. orcello, earlier oricello, or OSp. orchillo. In mod.L. roccella, mod.Sp. archilla, F. orseille. Origin uncertain: see below.]
A name given to various species of lichens, also called Orchil and Orchilla-weed (Roccella tinctoria, etc.), which yield a violet dye, and the chemical test substance litmus. Also: The coloring-matter prepared from these and other lichens.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., viii. § 3. Diers usen to dye … with Orchell and Corke.
1551. Turner, Herbal, I. P j b. Of Orchall, otherwyse called corck … This is called in London archall, and the dyers vse it to dy withall.
1678. Phillips, Archal, otherwise called Derbishire Liverwort, because it groweth upon the Freestones of the Mountain Peak.
1727. Threlkeld, Synop. Stirp. Hibern. Sold by the name of Archel in this City.
1758. Phil. Trans., I. 673. A red dye … preferable to the cork, or arcel.
1791. Hamilton, Berthollet’s Dyeing, Introd. 11. A kind of archil.
1860. Piesse, Lab. Chem. Wonders, 146. This archil yields a beautiful blue pigment, known … by the name of litmus.
1863. Watts, Dict. Chem. (1872), I. 355. A variety of archil manufactured in Glasgow … is much esteemed, and sold by the name of cudbear.
[Erroneously derived by Littré from the name of its discoverer or introducer into Italy, Federigo Ruccellai or Oricellari, c. 1300. For the Oricellari, afterwards vulgò Ruccellari or Rucellai, took their surname from the oricello: cf. Gamurrini, Istoria genealogica delle famiglie nobili della Toscana (1668), I. 274, Giornale de’ letterati d’ Italia (1722), XXXIII. art. 6, and Manni, De Florentinis inventis (1731). According to the second of these, Federigo, on noticing the properties of the plant in the Levant, ‘intesi chiamarsi Respio in quella parte, Orciglio in Ispagna.’ Whether the original was Oricello or Orciglio, a derivation from rocca rock, founded on mod.L. roccella, is out of the question.)
