Cerise comes from French cerise ('cherry'), from Vulgar Latin *ceresia, from Late Latin cerasium, from Greek kerasion ('cherry'). The historical trail runs through cerise in French and kerasion in Ancient Greek. Used as a noun and adjective, cerise now means "a bright, deep cherry-red color", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in related forms such as cherry. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.