mauve
/məʊv
/adjective
Of a pale purple colour: blossoms with mauve and white petals...
- She wore a white tunic with pale mauve sleeves and veil.
- The wind was blowing through her fancy curtained window and a light breeze hit her long brown hair as it dangled off the bed hitting the pale purple and mauve comforter.
- Flower blossoms are creamy white with mauve caps and are frugally placed up the stem above glossy green foliage.
noun [mass noun]
1A pale purple colour: a few pale streaks of mauve were all that remained of the sunset [count noun]: glowing with soft pastel mauves and pinks...
- Some are white, many in hues of lavender and lilac, pale mauves and deep purples, and a host of other colors.
- They come in the girliest pinks, mauves and purples.
- Grey carbuncled shells of giant clams open up to reveal a flesh of startling beauty, soft mauves dotted with electric blue and the palest of yellow.
2 historical A pale purple aniline dye prepared by William H. Perkin in 1856. It was the first synthetic dyestuff.The first synthetic dye, mauve, was prepared in 1856 by the English chemist William Henry Perkin....
- The 1856 discovery of the first synthetic aniline dye, mauve, marked a new era in textile dyeing.
- One example is the story of the clarification of the chemical structure of Perkin's mauve, the first synthetic dyestuff.
Derivatives
mauvish
/ adjective ...- The photographs are printed in a brown / mauvish colour, not precisely ‘sepia toned’, I think, but the effect is similar.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from French, literally 'mallow', from Latin malva.