mauve

English

WOTD – 3 May 2006

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.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məʊv/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mɔːv/, /moʊv/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• Audio (US, alternative):

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• Rhymes: -əʊv, -ɔːv

Noun

mauve (countable and uncountable, plural mauves)

1. (historical) A rich purple synthetic dye, which faded easily, briefly popular c. 1859‒1873 and now called mauveine.

   mauveine:  

   old mauve:  

2. A pale purple or violet colour, like the colour of the dye after it has faded.

   mauve:  

   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter VIII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 151:

     Never trust a woman who wears mauve, whatever her age may be, or a woman over thirty-five who is fond of pink ribbons.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mauve.

Derived terms

• mauve box
• mauve stinger
• Perkin's mauve

 

Translations

dye

• Polish: moweina (pl) f
• Turkish: eflatun (tr)

colour

• Catalan: malva (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 藕荷色 (ǒuhésè), 藕合色 (zh) (ǒuhésè), 錦葵紫 / 锦葵紫 (jǐnkuízǐ)

• Czech: lila (cs), světle fialová barva, slézová barva
• Dutch: mauve (nl) n, paars (nl) n
• Esperanto: malvo
• Estonian: kahvatulilla
• Finnish: malvanväri
• French: mauve (fr) m
• German: fliederfarben (de); blasslila; (fairly uncommon also) mauve (de), malvenfarben, malvenfarbig
• Greek: μωβ (el) (mov), ιώδες (el) (iódes), μαβί (el) (maví), πορφυρό (el) (porfyró)
• Hungarian: mályva (hu)
• Ido: malva (io)
• Italian: malva (it)
• Japanese: 薄紫 (usumurasaki), 藤色 (fujiiro)
• Maori: poroporo
• Norman: lîlas (Jersey)
• Persian: ارغوانی (fa) (arğavâni)
• Portuguese: lilás (pt)
• Romanian: mov (ro) n
• Scottish Gaelic: liath-phurpur m
• Slovene: lila, lilasta f
• Spanish: malva (es)
• Turkish: eflatun (tr)
• Vietnamese: (màu) cẩm quỳ
• Welsh: porffor gwelw m, rhuddlaswyn

Adjective

mauve (comparative mauver or more mauve, superlative mauvest or most mauve)

1. Having a pale purple colour.
   • 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 222:

     [A]long their time-marked walls wistaria threw patches of mauve blossom.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:mauve.

Translations

colour

• Arabic: بَنَفْسَجِيّ (ar) m (banafsajiyy)

  Moroccan Arabic: حمْسي m (ḥəmsi)

• Bulgarian: бледоморав (bledomorav)
• Czech: světle fialový, lila (cs), slézový (cs)
• Dutch: mauve (nl), paars (nl)
• Esperanto: malva (eo)
• Estonian: kahvatulilla
• Finnish: malvanvärinen
• French: mauve (fr)
• Japanese: 薄紫の (usumurasaki no), 藤色の (fujiiro no)
• Maori: poroporo
• Persian: ارغوانی (fa) (arğavâni)
• Portuguese: lilás (pt) m
• Romanian: mov (ro), liliachiu (ro)
• Russian: розовато-лиловый (rozovato-lilovyj), мальвовый (ru) (malʹvovyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: liath-phurpur
• Vietnamese: (màu) cẩm quỳ
• Walloon: måve (wa) m or f
• Welsh: porffor gwelw

See also

• Appendix:Colors

Anagrams

• aevum, ævum

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mov/

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old French, from Latin malva (“mallow”), which has a purple colour; ultimately of Semitic origin.

Noun

mauve f (plural mauves)

1. mallow

Noun

mauve m (plural mauves)

1. mauve

Adjective

mauve (plural mauves)

1. mauve

Descendants

• → English: mauve
• → Greek: μοβ (mov), μωβ (mov)
• → Romanian: mov
• → Russian: мов (mov)

Etymology 2

Inherited from Middle French mauve, from Old French mave (“mew”), from Old English mǣw (“mew, seagull”), from Proto-Germanic *maihwaz, *maiwaz (“seagull”). Related to mouette. Cognate with German Möwe (“seagull”), Dutch meeuw (“seagull”), Danish måge (“seagull”), Icelandic mávur (“seagull”), Polish mewa (“seagull”) (from Germanic). More at mew.

Noun

mauve f (plural mauves)

1. mew, gull, seagull

   Synonyms: mouette, goéland

Related terms

• mauviette
• mauvis

Further reading

• “mauve”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norman

Etymology 1

From Old French mave (“mew”), from Old English mǣw (“mew, seagull”) or Old Norse már, mávar (compare Icelandic mávur), from Proto-Germanic *maihwaz, *maiwaz (“seagull”).

Noun

mauve f (plural mauves)

1. (Jersey) seagull, herring gull

Alternative forms

• mâove (continental Normandy)
• maoue (Guernsey)

Etymology 2

From Old French, from Latin malva.

Noun

mauve f (plural mauves)

1. (Jersey) tree mallow (Malva arborea, syn. Lavatera arborea)

Synonyms

• mauve dé gardîn
• grand' mauve
• maûvi