Mauve
/mɔːv/ adj, noun
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A rich purple synthetic dye, which faded easily, briefly popular c. 1859‒1873 and now called mauveine. countable, historical, uncountable
- 2 a moderate purple wordnet
- 3 A pale purple or violet colour, like the colour of the dye after it has faded. countable, uncountable
"Never trust a woman who wears mauve, whatever her age may be, or a woman over thirty-five who is fond of pink ribbons."
Adjective
- 1 Having a pale purple colour.
"[A]long their time-marked walls wistaria threw patches of mauve blossom."
Adjective
- 1 of a pale to moderate greyish violet color wordnet
Example
More examples"I looked round me. I was on what seemed to be a little lawn in a garden, surrounded by rhododendron bushes, and I noticed that their mauve and purple blossoms were dropping in a shower under the beating of the hail-stones."
Etymology
Borrowed from French mauve (“mallow”), from Latin malva, which has a purple colour. Doublet of mallow. Coined in 1856 by the chemist William Henry Perkin, when he accidentally created the first aniline dye.