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puce

[pyoos]
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adjective

of a dark or brownish purple.

noun

a dark or brownish purple.

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RELATED WORDS

rose, flaming, maroon, glowing, cardinal, crimson, coral, wine, fawn, ginger, tan, toast, amber, brick, nut, buff, coffee, drab, dust, bronze

Nearby words

  1. puca,
  2. pucallpa,
  3. puccini,
  4. puccini, giacomo,
  5. puccoon,
  6. pucellas,
  7. pucelle,
  8. puck,
  9. puck control,
  10. puck hog

Origin of puce

1780–90; < French: literally, flea < Latin pūlic-, stem of pūlex
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for puce

British Dictionary definitions for puce

puce

noun

  1. a colour varying from deep red to dark purplish-brown
  2. (as adjective)a puce carpet

Word Origin for puce

C18: shortened from French couleur puce flea colour, from Latin pūlex flea
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for puce

puce

n.

"brownish-purple," 1787, from French puce "flea-color; flea," from Latin pucilem (nominative pulex) "flea," from PIE *plou- "flea" (cf. Sanskrit plusih, Greek psylla, Old Church Slavonic blucha, Lithuanian blusa, Armenian lu "flea"). That it could be generally recognized as a color seems a testimony to our ancestors' intimacy with vermin.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper