mauve

en-noun

mauve (countable and uncountable, plural mauves)

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.

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


violet

Etymology tree
Latin viola
Old French -ette
Old French violettebor.
Middle English violet
English violet
Inherited from Middle English violet, vyolet, vyolette, from Old French violette, from Latin viola (“violet”). Cognate with Lithuanian violetinė (“purple, violet”) and Spanish violeta (“purple, violet”).

etymon

The color of most violets; the colour evoked by the shortest visible wavelengths between 380 and 435 nm, an additive tertiary colour.


lavender

en-noun

lavender (countable and uncountable, plural lavenders)

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.

Any of a group of European plants, genus, Lavandula, of the mint family.

(film, historical, uncountable) A kind of film stock for creating positive prints from negatives as part of the process of duplicating the negatives.


lavender

en-adj

lavender (comparative more lavender, superlative most lavender)

more lavender (comparative)
most lavender (superlative)

“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.

1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 81:

My sother (significant other) and I have been together almost nineteen years. Exactly half of the usual wedding vows taken traditionally by non-lavender couples — for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, — have been characteristic of our relationship.

1981 August 22, Nancy Walker, “Still Coming Out, After All These Years”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 6, page 11:

(politics) Pertaining to LGBT people and rights.


grape

en-noun

grape (countable and uncountable, plural grapes)

From Middle English grape, from Old French grape, grappe, crape (“cluster of fruit or flowers, bunch of grapes”), from graper, craper (“to pick grapes”, literally “to hook”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *krappō (“hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *greb- (“hook”), *gremb- (“crooked, uneven”), from *ger- (“to turn, bend, twist”). Cognate with Middle Dutch krappe (“hook”), Old High German krapfo (“hook”) (whence German Krapfen (“Berliner doughnut”). Doublet of grappa. More at cramp.

mountain grape

Vitis rupestris; Berberis aquifolium, syn. Mahonia aquifolium

possum grape

Vitis vulpina; Vitis baileyana; Cissus spp.

racoon grape

Vitis labrusca et al.; Ampelopsis cordata

(African-American Vernacular, slang) A person's head.


amethyst

From Middle English ametist, from Old French ametiste (French améthyste), from Ancient Greek ἀμέθυστος (améthustos, “not drunk”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + μεθύω (methúō, “I am drunk”), from μέθυ (méthu, “wine”).
The name was based on the ancient belief that amethyst gemstones could prevent intoxication. People in ancient Greece and Rome would wear amethyst or drink from cups made of amethyst to ward off the effects of alcohol.

The Field is Topaz, a Lion rampant Amethyst [...]

1726, John Guillim, The Banner Display'd, page 407:

Purple, on the arms of princes Mercury, of peers amethyst, and of commoners purpure, [is represented] by diagonal lines from the sinister chief to the dexter base.

1834, The Art of Heraldry; Explaining the Origin and Use of Arms and Armorial Bearings, Etc, page 14:

1st & 4th grand Quarter alike viz. Field Pearl, on a bend Sapphire 3 Buckheads, coup'd topaz for Stanley. The 2d Quarter, Field Sapphire with an inverted Chief, amethyst. The 3d, A Checque topaz & Amethyst, this seems prior to Bosworth field, to have belong'd to Sr Robt Goushill whose Dr a Stanley married …

1906 (printed), The Beetham Repository, 1770 (eds. William Hutton, John Rawlinson Ford), page 115

(heraldry) The tincture purpure, when blazoning by precious stones.


petunia

From New Latin Petunia, from (now obsolete) French pétun (“the tobacco plant”), from Portuguese petum (“tobacco”), from Paraguayan Guaraní pety.

Usually petunias are quite pest free, but aphids are occasional problems.

2002, Larry Hodgson, Annuals for Every Purpose, page 57:

The small purple petunias are produced in profusion and without ceasing during the entire season.

2003, Norman Winter, Tough-As-Nails Flowers for the South, page 39:

Closely related calibrachoas, often called miniature petunias, offer dainty petunia-like blossoms that are perfect for planting in pots.
No matter what type of petunias you choose, they all prefer plenty of sun.

2013, Jan Riggenbach, Your Midwest Garden: An Owner's Manual, page 18:

Any of the flowering plants of genus Petunia, of which most garden varieties are hybrids.


ultraviolet

en-adj

ultraviolet (comparative more ultraviolet, superlative most ultraviolet)

more ultraviolet (comparative)
most ultraviolet (superlative)

/ˌʌltɹəˈvaɪələt/

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-
Latin ūls
Proto-Indo-European *-teros?
Latin -ter
Old Latin -ād
Latin -ā
Latin ultrālbor.
English ultra-
Latin viola
Old French -ette
Old French violettebor.
Middle English violet
English violet
English ultraviolet
From ultra- (“beyond”) + violet (“violet”).

etymon

A one-loop Feynman graph that represents a virtual process. In the limit in which the virtual process involves short distances or high momenta, one may find an ultraviolet divergence in the corresponding amplitude.

2004, Barton Zwiebach, A First Course in String Theory, →ISBN, Figure 23.1, page 519:

Some have advocated the search for a new theory of quantum gravity, a theory which does not suffer from ultraviolet infinity problems.

2009, Herbert W. Hamber, Quantum Gravitation: The Feynman Path Integral Approach, →ISBN, page vii:

Since current gravitational observations are insensitive to quantum effects, one may wonder why an ultraviolet completion of the gravity theory is needed if inflation, in fact, occurs several orders of magnitude below the Planck scale.

2017, David F. Chernoff, S.-H. Henry Tye, “Inflation, string theory and cosmic strings”, in Wei-Tou Ni, editor, One Hundred Years of General Relativity […], volume 2, →ISBN, page 275:

(figurative, physics) Relating to very high energies or very small distances or time spans.