Lavender is a light shade of purple or violet. It applies particularly to the color of the flower of the same name. The web color called lavender is displayed adjacent—it matches the color of the palest part of the flower; however, the more saturated color shown as floral lavender more closely matches the average color of the lavender flower as shown in the picture and is the tone of lavender historically and traditionally considered lavender by average people as opposed to website designers.[3] The color lavender might be described as a medium purple or a light pinkish-purple. The term lavender may be used in general to apply to a wide range of pale, light, or grayish-purples, but only on the blue side; lilac is pale purple on the pink side. In paints, the color lavender is made by mixing purple and white paint.
Historical development of the concept of the color
The first recorded use of the word lavender as a color term in English was in 1705.[4]
Originally, the name lavender only applied to flowers. By 1930, the book A Dictionary of Color[5] identified three major shades of lavender—[floral] lavender, lavender gray, and lavender blue, and in addition a fourth shade of lavender called old lavender (a darker lavender gray) (all four of these shades of lavender are shown below). By 1955, the publication of the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (a color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps), now on the Internet,[6] listed dozens of different shades of lavender. Today, although the color floral lavender (the color of the flower of the lavender plant) remains the standard for lavender, just as there are many shades of pink (light red, light rose, and light magenta colors), there are many shades of lavender (some light magenta, some light purple, [mostly] light violet [as well as some grayish-violet], and some light indigo colors).
The color designated as the web color lavender is a very pale tint of lavender that in other (artistic) contexts may be described as lavender mist.[citation needed]
Displayed at right is the color languid lavender. The source of this color is the Plochere Color System, a color system formulated in 1948 that is widely used by interior designers.[7]
The historical name for this color is lavender gray. It is listed in A Dictionary of Color as one of the three major variations of lavender in 1930 along with lavender blue (shown below) and [floral] lavender (also shown below).[8] (This book also designates a fourth shade of lavender, called old lavender, also shown below). This color is similar to Prismacolor colored pencil PC 1026, Greyed Lavender.
Lavender blue was listed in A Dictionary of Color as one of the three major variations of lavender in 1930 along with lavender gray (shown above) and [floral] lavender (shown below). It is identified as being the same color as periwinkle. The first use of the term lavender blue as a color term was in 1926.[11]
The color wisteria is displayed at right. Wisteria, a light medium violet color is equivalent to light lavender.
The Prismacolor colored pencil PC 956, which used to be called light violet and is now called lilac (the actual color of the colored pencil is equivalent to wisteria rather than lilac) is this color.
Wisteria in this exact shade is one of the Crayola crayon colors on the list of Crayola crayon colors. It was formulated as a Crayola color in 1993. The first recorded use of wisteria as a color name in English was in 1892.[12]
After the introduction of the Munsell color system, in which purple, described as equivalent to red-violet, is described as one of the five psychological primary colors along with red, yellow, green, and blue, some people began to think of lavender as being somewhat more pinkish color.[citation needed]
This color can be described as lavender pink or pale pinkish-purple when purple is defined as equivalent to red-violet as artists do.[citation needed]
This tone of lavender, displayed at right, is the color designated as lavender (color #74) in the list of Crayola crayon colors. This version of "lavender" is a lot pinker than the other shades of lavender shown here.
Lavender rose[15] is a light shade of magenta.[16] Before 1958, the color shown below as medium lavender gray and now called purple mountain majesty by Crayola was called lavender in Crayola crayons. This color can be seen as between the colors rose and lavender.
Some perceive lavender as being a light violet color somewhere between the web colors heliotrope and the web color wisteria. This color is reproduced at right: it is equivalent to the web color mistakenly called "Violet" which is actually a light violet, i.e., a lavender of medium saturation (see the colors displayed in the article on violet for a comparison of the so-called web color "violet" with the actual color violet, which is color #8B00FF: actual color violet). Although the web color "violet" may be called light violet it is technically actually a light magenta, since the red and blue values of the color are equal (which signifies for computer display that this color is a shade of magenta), and therefore another name for this color is lavender magenta,[17][18][19] analogous to the colors lavender gray, lavender indigo, lavender blue, lavender rose, and lavender pink.
This color may be regarded both as a tone of lavender since it is a light color between rose and blue and as a light medium tone of magenta because its red and blue values are equal (the color signature of a tone of magenta for computer display).
Displayed at right is the color bright úbe (The word ube is pronounced OObeh).[22][23][24][25][26] The color takes its name from purple yams, notably from the appearance of pastries or ice cream where said tuber is an ingredient or the overall flavor. Outside the Philippines, such products are available in Filipinogrocery or speciality stores.
At right is displayed the color Lavender (floral). This color matches the color shown as "lavender" (viewed under a full-spectrumfluorescent lamp) in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color (reference below), the world standard for color names before the introduction of computers. This color may also be called floral lavender. It is a medium violet.
This tone of lavender would be the approximate color you would get if you mix 50% violet paint and 50% white paint.
This tone of lavender may be regarded as actual lavender and the other tones displayed in this article can be regarded as all variations on this shade.[28]
This lavender also closely matches the color given as lavender in a basic purple color chart.
Amethyst
Amethyst as a quaternary color on the RYB color wheel
The color amethyst is a moderate, transparent violet. Its name is derived from the stone amethyst, a form of quartz. Amethyst is the birthstone for those born in February.
The first recorded use of amethyst as a color name in English was in 1572.[30]
Though the color of natural amethyst varies from purple to yellow, the amethyst color referred to here is the moderate purple color most commonly associated with amethyst stones. There is disagreement as to the cause of the purple color of the amethyst stone. Some believe that the color is due to the presence of manganese, while others have suggested that the amethyst color could be from ferricthiocyanate or sulfur found in amethyst stones.[31]
Displayed at right is the color purple mountain majesty, a Crayola color since 1993. This color may be regarded as a medium lavender gray.[citation needed]
This color was the color called lavender in Crayola crayons before 1958, when Crayola switched to calling the color shown above as lavender pink as being lavender. See the website "Lost Crayola Crayon Colors".[33] Because of that, another name for this color is lavender purple.
Mountain view at Auke Bay, Alaska showing distinctive purple tinges.
This color is a representation of the way mountains look when they are far away.
The color twilight lavender is displayed at right. Twilight lavender is a color formulated by Crayola in 1990 as one of the colors in its Silver Swirls specialty box of metallic colors.
Although this is supposed to be a metallic color, there is no mechanism for displaying metallic colors on a computer.
Displayed at right is the color dark lavender, a representation of the exact shade of lavender that is used in the central band of the bisexual pride flag (Pantone color #258--"Deep Lavender"). On the bisexual pride flag, this color is shown as being the combination of a deep tone of magenta darker than but similar to shocking pink, the color representing women, and royal azure (a medium dark shade of azure), the color representing men. For the specifications of the color tones of the top and bottom color bands, see the image of the flag in the bisexual pride flag article.
Displayed at right is the rich dark lavender purple color halayà úbe,[36] the color of the purple yam jam (halayà úbe) sold in Filipino grocery stores. The source of this color is the following website offering Filipino foods for sale (see under Halaya Ube):[37]
The dark lavender gray color displayed at right is called old lavender. It is a dark grayish-violet.
The first recorded use of old lavender as a color name in English was in the year 1924.[38]
In culture
Fashion
In the formal rules of mourning dress in Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian Britain, lavender was one of the few colors generally considered acceptable for women's clothing during the period of half-mourning, during which the bereaved was considered to still be in mourning and required to dress in sober, muted tones, but was not expected to wear the all-black garments of full mourning.
Lavender roses are symbolic of "love at first sight".[39]
Just as in the 1890s mauve symbolized homosexuality, the tone of lavender described above as [true] lavender or floral lavender became the symbol of homosexuality in the 1950s and 1960s. The gay anthem Das lila Lied was released in 1920 with the line "we only love lavender night...". In 1923, Harold Hersey wrote a tongue-in-cheek poem called "The Lavender Cowboy" about an unmanly cowboy with "only two hairs on his chest". Seán O'Casey wrote in 1928, "I am very sorry... that I have hurt the refined sentimentalities of C. W. Allen by neglecting to use the lavender... language of the 18th and 19th centuries." Cole Porter's 1929 song "I'm a Gigolo" went: "I'm a famous gigolo, And of lavender, my nature's got just a dash in it." A 1935 dictionary of slang reported "streak of lavender," meant an effeminate man or a sissy, a term used in 1926 by Carl Sandburg to describe young Abraham Lincoln.[41] In the 1960s, homophiles were sometimes referred to as the lavender boys (this term is still used by some people (both gay and non-gay) to refer to gays). A lavender convention is a convention of homosexuals. A heterosexual who has some homosexual tendencies is described as someone with a dash of lavender.[42] In the 1970s pink became more often associated with homosexuality because of the use of the pink triangle as a symbol of gay liberation. However, gays of the baby boom generation still think of lavender as the gayest color. According to some sources, the reason lavender symbolizes homosexuality is because it is the color that is obtained when you mix pink (the color symbolizing girls) with baby blue (the color symbolizing boys).[43]
A lavender marriage is a marriage between a man and a woman in which one, or both, parties are, or are assumed to be, homosexual. Usually, but not always, both parties are assumed to be complicit in a public deception to hide their homosexuality (although in some lavender marriages, the marriage partners may be bisexual).
The Lavender Families Resource Network, formerly known as the Mothers' National Defense Fund, was a Seattle-based organization started in 1974 with the aim to provide lesbian and bisexual women with resources and information relating to child-rearing, custody and adoption issues, and donor insemination.[48]
Lavender Graduation is an event that occurs annually at many colleges and universities where LGBT students get their own graduation ceremony to celebrate their identities and achievements.
The study of language used specifically by LGBT speakers is known as lavender linguistics.
Lavender Country was an American country music band whose 1973 self-titled album was made up entirely of gay-themed songs.
Music
"Lavender Blue", originally an English folk song dating to the 17th century. This song became very popular during the 1950s rock and roll era, when it was sung by Solomon Burke. A hit version of the song, sung by Burl Ives, was featured in the Walt Disney movie So Dear to My Heartand the 2015 film Cinderella.
"Lavender" is a song by Marillion on the 1985 album Misplaced Childhood. It quotes the folk song "Lavender Blue" in its lyrics.
"Lavender" is a song by October Noir on the 2019 album Thirteen.[51]
In Theosophy and the Ascended Master Teachings (a group of religions based on Theosophy), since the color violet represents the deitySt. Germain, and lavender is simply a light tone of violet, lavender as well as violet objects may be placed on the altar to St. Germain.
Lavender Town is a purple-tinted town in the Kanto region in the Pokémon video games. It is well-known for being a graveyard for Pokémon, and the many ghosts that haunt it.
^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill See discussion of color lavender, Page 163; See color Sample of Lavender—Page 109 Plate 43 Color Sample C5 (Note that the color sample of lavender shown in the bookA Dictionary of Color (the world standard for color matching before the introduction of computers) matches the shade of lavender displayed above under the heading "Lavender (floral)" )
^A. Maerz; M. Rea Paul (1930). A Dictionary of Color. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 197. OCLC1150631.
^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill
^ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)—Color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps—See various shades of the color Lavender displayed on indicated page: [1]Archived 2017-08-22 at the Wayback Machine
^The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called periwinkle in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color periwinkle is displayed on page 109, Plate 43, Color Sample B8.
^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 196—Lavender blue shown as one of the three major variations of lavender under heading lavender; Page 190—Lavender blue is listed as blue-lavender, first use of the color term is identified as 1926, and the color is identified with periwinkle.
^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 207; Color Sample of Wisteria: Page 105 Plate 41 Color Sample E8
^Type the words "Pink Lavender" into the indicated window on the Pantone Color Finder and the color will appear.
^The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called heliotrope in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color heliotrope is displayed on page 131, Plate 54, Color Sample C10.
^The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called lavender in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color lavender is displayed on page 109, Plate 43, Color Sample C5.
^Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Color Sample of Lavender—Page 109 Plate 43 Color Sample C5 (The color sample of lavender shown in A Dictionary of Color matches the tone of lavender displayed above under the heading "Lavender (floral)")
Color coordinates
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