the.com/anil
The indigo plant that dyed empires blue before chemistry got jealous and synthesized it.
means Anil is both the indigo-yielding shrub (Indigofera) and the deep blue dye extracted from its leaves.
from The word traveled a long relay: Sanskrit 'nila' (dark blue) became Arabic 'an-nil' (the indigo), which Portuguese traders picked up as 'anil' and carried into European languages. It's a rare case of a color concept riding the spice-and-dye trade routes all the way from South Asia to Iberia before scattering further.
- botanical name
- Indicans a species of Indigofera, not true indigo
- etymology
- From Sanskrit nili meaning dark blue
- also means
- A common Spanish and Filipino first name
- economic history
- Synthetic dye in 1897 crashed its entire industry