Plural of anil; indigo plants or the indigo dye extracted from them, historically important for textile coloring.
From Portuguese 'anil,' borrowed from Sanskrit 'nīla' meaning 'dark blue,' which came from an Indian language. The word traveled along trade routes from India to Portugal to English.
Indigo dye was so valuable that it sparked colonial explorations and enslaved labor systems—the word 'anil' is literally embedded in the brutal economics of the age of exploration.
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