colours

Mauve

Where do new words and new uses of old words come from? In some cases we know exactly; in others, not at all and can only guess. Examples of both extremes are the words mauve and mullet. Mauve is the product of serendipity and imagination. The Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) first record of the word’s use is from 1859. yourDictionary.com defines it as "a moderate purple, violet, or lilac color" and adds that it is also "a dyestuff that produces a mauve color." The term is a loanword from French, in which it means "the mallow plant" or the color of its flowers.


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Mauve

posted by moonlight @ 5:34 AM