Vocabulary lesson from eBay

[Didier Lachieze]

(11-30-2015 01:36 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  I presume this word comes from French (I recognize "verd" - green) - can any French-speaking folks here confirm (or deny) this guess?

In French we say "vert-de-gris", "vert" is green and "gris" is grey but what is interesting is that originally it was "vert-de-Grèce" which morphed phonetically into "vert-de-gris". "Grèce" is the country (Greece) and it's related to the copper (cuivre in French) whose name comes from Chyprus from where the Romans where getting it.