puce
[pyoos]
- of a dark or brownish purple.
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- a dark or brownish purple.
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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. 2018
Examples from the Web for puce
Historical Examples
It serves for reds and pinks, and enters into the composition of puce and lilac.
He did not use a deep purple or a puce colour in the ornaments of his dress.
A History of Chinese LiteratureHerbert A. Giles
They describe my heliotrope poplin as puce alpaca with a muslin frill!
Mr. Punch in Wig and GownVarious
To make plum-color or puce, indigo is the dye, with a cochineal.
But the case of the inhabitant of the puce dressing-gown was an exception to the rule.
Buried Alive: A Tale of These DaysArnold Bennett
puce
- a colour varying from deep red to dark purplish-brown
- (as adjective)a puce carpet
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Word Origin
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
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Word Origin and History for 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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper