Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fun meme hosted by Kathy at Bermudaonion's Weblog where you can share new words you've come across in your reading or just spotlight words you love.
My word this week comes from THE EMPTY GLASS by J.I. Baker:
Puce -
"The window had puce lace curtains that dragged like bridal trains on the checkerboard floor."
oOoOoOo
Now, I have seen and heard this word before, but honestly, I never really knew what color it was! It sounds kind of gross, huh?
The online dictionaries say puce is a color somewhere between brownish purple, grayish purple, dark brown and deep red. Hmm.
The word is French for flea, and according to Wikipedia, "the color is said to be the color of the bloodstains remaining on linen or bedsheets, even after being laundered, from a flea's droppings or after a flea has been killed." Eww.
The hex color code for puce is #CC8899, which looks like the box below:
PUCE
I don't know. In spite of its less than pleasant origins, I think puce looks very pretty on the computer! :-)
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I knew puce means flea in French but had no idea it's a color. Thinking about what color it means and why is kind of gross but, you're right, it is a lovely color on your computer.
ReplyDeleteI guess on he curtains it would look good too, as long as you didn't know its name...
ReplyDeleteHi Diana,
ReplyDeletePuce is stil a word which is used quite widely here in the UK, although usually in the context that someone has "gone puce in the face", generally if they are angry, or possibly a little the worse for drink!
There are many interpretations of colour for this word and I think that yours might be a little too pretty in the context I would use it! Maybe a little more purplish'brown hue might do the trick!
Nice post, made me smile anyway!
Yvonne
I know the word puce as a color.
ReplyDeletehttp://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/11/wondrous-words-wednesday_14.html
That's disturbing lol. Great post! I don't think i'll forget about this color...
ReplyDeleteWhen I first sae the word I pronounced it with a hard c - like puke. I do know what that means. I had no idea puce was a color. When I read the description of the color I figured I wasn't too far off. (Sorry for my weird sense of humor. Its okay to delete this comment.)
ReplyDeleteThe color is prettier than the name suggests.
ReplyDeletetime to try using this in a sentence tonight..LOL
ReplyDeleteI always have trouble when we talk about colours, but you've explained it perfectly!! :)
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget what colour is puce!
My nickname is Flea but I don't think I want anyone calling me Puce :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for researching that. It's a word used fairly often but I've never really thought about what exact shade of colour it represented. Now I know! The colour is prettier than the word !!
ReplyDeletePS I love the Waterhouse pictures on your blog design :-)
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