lavender
English
Etymology
From Middle English lavendre, from Anglo-Norman lavendre (French lavande), from Medieval Latin lavendula, possibly from Latin lividus (“bluish”), but influenced by lavō (“wash”) due to use of lavender in washing clothes.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈlæv.ən.də/
Audio (RP) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈlæv.ən.dɚ/
Noun
lavender (countable and uncountable, plural lavenders)
- Any of a group of European plants, genus, Lavandula, of the mint family.
- (color) A pale bluish purple colour, like that of the lavender flower.
- lavender:
- web lavender:
- (film, historical, uncountable) A kind of film stock for creating positive prints from negatives as part of the process of duplicating the negatives.
Hyponyms
- (plant): common lavender
Derived terms
- lavender water
- lay in lavender
- sea lavender
- spike lavender
Related terms
- launder
Translations
plant
|
colour
|
See also
- Appendix:Colors
Adjective
lavender (comparative more lavender, superlative most lavender)
- (color) Having a pale purple colour.
- (politics) Pertaining to LGBT people and rights.
- 1966, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York: Bantam Books, published 1976, →ISBN, page 81:
- “Now in here,” their guide, sweating dark tentacles into his tab collar, briefed them, “you are going to see the members of the third sex, the lavender crowd this city by the Bay is so justly famous for.
-
- (politics) Pertaining to lesbian feminism; opposing heterosexism. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
Derived terms
- lavender lad
- lavender scare
Translations
colour
|
Verb
lavender (third-person singular simple present lavenders, present participle lavendering, simple past and past participle lavendered)
- (transitive) To decorate or perfume with lavender.
- 1986, Katherine Gibson Fougera, With Custer's Cavalry, page 47:
- Short shafts of dying sunlight mingled with the deepening grey, lavendering the horizon, and all nature seemed to hush as though waiting to welcome the night.
-
Further reading
- lavender on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Lavandula on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
- Lavandula on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
Anagrams
- Vreeland
Middle English
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Old French lavandier, lavandiere, from Medieval Latin lavandārius.
Alternative forms
- launder, lavendeer, lavendere, lavendre, lawender, lawnder, lawndere
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /lavənˈdeːr/, /ˈlavəndər/, /lau̯nˈdeːr/, /ˈlau̯ndər/
Noun
lavender (plural lavenderes)
- A washer; one (especially a woman) who washes clothes.
- (euphemistic) A woman employed in prostitution or who has loose morals.
Related terms
- lavendrie
Descendants
- English: launder
- Scots: launer
References
- “lavender(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-24.
Noun
lavender
- Alternative form of lavendre