I thought not!
Kermes is a red dye derived from the dried bodies of the females of a scale insect in the genus kermes, primarily kermes vermilio.
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The kerme insects are native in the Mediterranean region and live on the sap of the kermes oak.
They were used as a red dye by the ancient Greeks and Romans.
The kermes dye is a rich red.
Kermes is the pregnant female insect gathered in large quantities from a species of evergreen oak in southern Europe and northern Africa.
It was used in the production of the colour crimson and at times in medicine.
It is also known as the scarlet grain insect.
It is also known as a kermes berry, or a grain or a kermes insect. It has even had a lake named after it.
These insects were so plentiful that the dried bodies of these insects were ground up and they produced the crimson effect.
In 1616 Bacon in Sylva commented "the scarlet powder, they call kermes".
The colour sometimes resembles purple.
But I set out to write about crimson.
Eliezer Edwards in his Dictionary of Words, Facts and Phrases, said carmine came from kermes, "the dried bodies of European insects, somewhat similar to the Mexican cochineal insect.
They produce a scarlet dye almost equa1 to true cochineal."
Craig Carver, writing in A History Of English In Its Own Words, said vermilion and crimson both were originally made from kermes made from the oldest-known red dye, which was later found to be inferior to a dye made from cochineal..
These days, crimson is produced by synthetic means.
After synthetic pigments and dyes such as alizarin were invented in the late 19th century, natural-dye production gradually diminished.
Some towns in the Mexican state of Oaxaca are still working in handmade textiles using this cochineal.
