Mauve Pansy

Mauve

Mauve is a pale purple color named after the mallow flower. The first use of the word mauve as a color was in 1796–1798 according to the Oxford English Dictionary, but its use seems to have been rare before 1859. Another name for the color is mallow, with the first recorded use of mallow as a color name in English in 1611.

Pansy

The garden pansy is a type of polychromatic large-flowered hybrid plant cultivated as a garden flower. It is derived by hybridization from several species in the section Melanium of the genus Viola, particularly V. tricolor, a wildflower of Europe and western Asia known as heartsease. It is sometimes known as V. tricolor var. hortensis, but this scientific name is suspect. While V. tricolor var. hortensis Groenland & Rümpler is a synonym of Viola × wittrockiana, V. tricolor var. hortensis DC. refers to a horticultural variety of wild pansy that had been illustrated in Flora Danica in 1777 before the existence of Viola × wittrockiana.

mauve

Noun

1. A rich purple synthetic dye, which faded easily, briefly popular c. 1859‒1873 and now called mauveine.
2. A pale purple or violet colour, like the colour of the dye after it has faded.

Adjective

1. Having a pale purple colour.

pansy

Noun

1. A cultivated flowering plant, derived by hybridization within species Viola tricolor.
2. A deep purple colour, like that of the pansy.

Adjective

1. Wimpy; spineless; feeble.
2. Of a deep purple colour, like that of the pansy.