late 13c., "cinnabar, red dye," from Anglo-French and Old French vermeillon "red lead, cinnabar, (cosmetic) rouge" (12c.), from vermeil (see vermeil). As an adjective, from 1580s.
Entries linking to vermilion
vermeil adj.
"bright-red," late 14c., from Anglo-French and Old French vermail, vermeil "bright-red, scarlet, crimson" (11c. in Old French), from Late Latin vermiculus "a little worm," specifically, the cochineal insect from which crimson dyes were obtained (compare kermes), in classical Latin, "larva of an insect, grub, maggot," diminutive of vermis "worm" (from PIE root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend"). As a noun in English from 1590s.