lavender

See also: Lavender

English

Etymology

From Middle English lavendre, from Anglo-Norman lavendre (French lavande), from Medieval Latin lavendula, possibly from Latin lividus (“bluish”), but influenced by lavō (“wash”) due to use of lavender in washing clothes.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlæv.ən.də/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlæv.ən.dɚ/

Noun

lavender (countable and uncountable, plural lavenders)

1. Any of a group of European plants, genus, Lavandula, of the mint family.
2. A pale bluish purple colour, like that of the lavender flower.

   lavender:  

   web lavender:  

3. (film, historical, uncountable) A kind of film stock for creating positive prints from negatives as part of the process of duplicating the negatives.

Hyponyms

• (plant): common lavender

Derived terms

• cotton lavender
• desert lavender
• English lavender
• French lavender
• lavender ceiling
• lavender cotton
• lavender linguistics
• lavender marriage
• lavender water
• lay in lavender
• lay up in lavender
• sea lavender
• spike lavender

 

Related terms

• launder

Translations

plant

• Arabic: خُزَامَى (ar) f (ḵuzāmā), ضِرْم m (ḍirm)
• Armenian: նարդոս (hy) (nardos)
• Bulgarian: лаванду́ла (bg) f (lavandúla)
• Catalan: espígol (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 薰衣草 (fan¹ ji¹ cou²)

  Mandarin: 薰衣草 (zh) (xūnyīcǎo)

• Czech: levandule (cs) f
• Danish: lavendel c
• Dutch: lavendel (nl)
• Esperanto: lavendo
• Estonian: lavendel
• Finnish: laventeli (fi)
• French: lavande (fr) f
• Galician: arzaia f, cantroxo (gl) m, lavanda (gl) f
• German: Lavendel (de) m
• Greek: λεβάντα (el) f (levánta)
• Hebrew: אזוביון (he) m (azovyón)
• Hungarian: levendula (hu)
• Icelandic: lofnarblóm (is) n
• Ido: lavendo (io)
• Indonesian: lavender (id)
• Irish: labhandar m, lus liath m
• Italian: lavanda (it) f
• Japanese: ラベンダー (ja) (rabendā)
• Khmer: ឡាវេនឌឺ (laaveindɨɨ)
• Korean: 라벤더 (ko) (rabendeo)
• Malay: lavender
• Middle English: lavendre
• Persian: استوخدوس (ostoxodus), لاواند (lâvând)
• Polish: lawenda (pl) f
• Portuguese: lavanda (pt) f, alfazema (pt) f
• Romanian: levănțică (ro) f, lavandă (ro) f
• Russian: лава́нда (ru) f (lavánda)
• Serbo-Croatian: lavanda (sh) f
• Slovene: sivka (sl) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: lawendel m

• Spanish: lavanda (es), espliego (es), cantueso (es), alhucema (es), lavándula f
• Swahili: mrujuani
• Swedish: lavendel (sv)
• Tagalog: alusema
• Thai: ลาเวนเดอร์ (laa-wen-də̂ə)
• Turkish: lavanta (tr)
• Ukrainian: лава́нда (uk) f (lavánda)
• Vietnamese: oải hương
• Welsh: lafant m
• West Frisian: lavindel

colour

• Bulgarian: лавандула (bg) f (lavandula)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 薰衣草色 (xūnyīcǎosè)

• Danish: lavendel c
• Dutch: lavendel (nl)
• Finnish: laventeli (fi), laventelinsininen
• French: bleu lavande m
• Galician: arzaña f
• Georgian: ლავანდისფერი (lavandisperi)
• German: Lavendel (de) m
• Greek: λεβάντα (el) f (levánta)
• Hungarian: levendulaszín (hu)
• Indonesian: lavender (id)
• Irish: lus liath m
• Italian: lavanda (it) f
• Japanese: 藤色 (ふじいろ, fujiiro)
• Korean: 연보라색 (yeonborasaek)
• Malay: gandaria
• Portuguese: cor de lavanda f, lilás (pt)
• Romanian: violaceu (ro) n
• Spanish: lavanda (es)
• Swahili: urujuani
• Swedish: lavendelblå (sv), gredelin (sv) (now rare)
• Vietnamese: oải hương

See also

• Appendix:Colors

Adjective

lavender (comparative more lavender, superlative most lavender)

1. Having a pale purple colour.
2. (politics) Pertaining to LGBT people and rights.
   • 1966, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York: Bantam Books, published 1976, →ISBN, page 81:

     “Now in here,” their guide, sweating dark tentacles into his tab collar, briefed them, “you are going to see the members of the third sex, the lavender crowd this city by the Bay is so justly famous for.

   • 1981 August 22, Nancy Walker, “Still Coming Out, After All These Years”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 6, page 11:

     My sother (significant other) and I have been together almost nineteen years. Exactly half of the usual wedding vows taken traditionally by non-lavender couples — for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, — have been characteristic of our relationship.

3. (politics) Pertaining to lesbian feminism; opposing heterosexism. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• lavender lad
• lavender scare

 

Translations

colour

• Dutch: zacht lila (nl)
• French: lavande (fr) m or f, bleu lavande
• Hungarian: levendulaszínű
• Japanese: 藤色の (ふじいろの, fujiiro no)
• Persian: بنفش روشن (banafš-e rošan)
• Romanian: liliachiu (ro), violaceu (ro)

Verb

lavender (third-person singular simple present lavenders, present participle lavendering, simple past and past participle lavendered)

1. (transitive) To decorate or perfume with lavender.
   • 1986, Katherine Gibson Fougera, With Custer's Cavalry, page 47:

     Short shafts of dying sunlight mingled with the deepening grey, lavendering the horizon, and all nature seemed to hush as though waiting to welcome the night.

Further reading

• lavender on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Lavandula on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Lavandula on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• Vreeland

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French lavandier, lavandiere, from Medieval Latin lavandārius.

Alternative forms

• launder, lavendeer, lavendere, lavendre, lawender, lawnder, lawndere

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lavənˈdeːr/, /ˈlavəndər/, /lau̯nˈdeːr/, /ˈlau̯ndər/

Noun

lavender (plural lavenderes)

1. A washer; one (especially a woman) who washes clothes.
2. (euphemistic) A woman employed in prostitution or who has loose morals.

Related terms

• lavendrie

Descendants

• English: launder
• Scots: launer

References

• “lavender(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-24.

Etymology 2

Noun

lavender

1. Alternative form of lavendre