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

• IPA^(key): /ˈlæv.ən.də/

• Audio (RP):

  (file)

• 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. (color) 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

• lavender water
• lay 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
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: lavanda (it) f
• Japanese: ラベンダー (ja) (rabendā)
• Korean: 라벤더 (ko) (rabendeo)
• Malay: lavender
• 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
• German: Lavendel (de) m
• Greek: λεβάντα (el) f (levánta)
• Hungarian: levendulaszín (hu)
• Indonesian: lavender (id)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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)
• Vietnamese: oải hương

See also

• Appendix:Colors

Adjective

lavender (comparative more lavender, superlative most lavender)

1. (color) Having a pale purple colour.
2. (politics) Pertaining to LGBT people and rights.
   • Template:RQ:Pynchon Crying Lot
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
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 藤色の (ふじいろの, fujiiro no)
• Persian: بنفش روشن (banafsh-e roshan)
• 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

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Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French lavandiere, from Medieval Latin lavandārius.

Alternative forms

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

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 having loose morals.

Related terms

• lavendrye

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

From Old French lavendre.

Noun

lavender

1. Alternative form of lavendre