A purple or violet dye obtained from certain lichens, used historically in cloth dyeing.
From French archil, from Dutch orchel, possibly from Old Norse. The dye comes from lichens of the genus Rocella and was important in medieval textile production.
Before synthetic dyes, archil from lichens was one of the few ways to create purple cloth—which is why purple was so expensive and reserved for royalty, making this humble lichen extraordinarily valuable.
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