mauve

mauve

English

WOTD – 3 May 2006

Etymology

Borrowed from French mauve (“mallow”), from Latin malva, which has a purple colour. Doublet of mallow. First 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)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (US) (alternative)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊv, -ɔːv

Noun

mauve (plural mauves)

1. (historical) A bright purple synthetic dye.
2. The colour of this dye; a pale purple or violet colour.

   mauve:  

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations: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: モーブ色 (mōbuiro), ふじ色 (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: モーブ色の (mōbuiro no), ふじ色の (fujiiro no) Maori: poroporo Persian: ارغوانی‎ (fa) (arğavâni) Portuguese: lilás (pt) m Romanian: mov (ro), liliachiu (ro) Russian: розовато-лиловый (rozovato-lilovyj) Scottish Gaelic: liath-phurpur Vietnamese: (màu) cẩm quỳ Walloon: måve (wa) m or f Welsh: porffor gwelw

See also

• Appendix:Colors

Anagrams

• aevum, ævum

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mov/

• audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

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
• → Romanian: mov
• → Russian: мов (mov)

Etymology 2

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.

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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