mignonette

English

Etymology

A botanical illustration of the mignonette (Reseda odorata; sense 1)

From French mignonette, from mignon (“dainty”) + -ette (“diminutive suffix”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmɪnjəˈnɛt/
• IPA^(key): /ˌminjəˈnɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt
• Hyphenation: mig‧non‧ette

Noun

mignonette (plural mignonettes)

1. A plant, Reseda odorata, having greyish-green flowers with orange-coloured stamens, and exhaling a delicious fragrance. In Africa it is a low shrub, but further north it is usually an annual herb. [from early 18th c.]
2. A mignonette tree (Lawsonia inermis), source of the dye henna.
3. A mignonette vine
4. A greyish-green colour, like that of the flowers of the plant.

   mignonette:  

Synonyms

• (plant): reseda (one sense)
• (colour): reseda

Translations

the plant Reseda odorata

• Dutch: reseda (nl)
• Finnish: tuoksureseda
• Galician: reseda f
• Irish: buí cumhra m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: rezeda wonna f
• Romanian: rezedă (ro) f, rozetă (ro) f
• Russian: резеда́ (ru) f (rezedá)

greyish-green colour — see also reseda

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Adjective

mignonette (comparative more mignonette, superlative most mignonette)

1. Of a greyish-green colour, like that of the flowers of the plant.
   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 44:

     She wore a dishabille of mignonette-green silk and bead-diapered head-dress that added several inches to her height […].

Synonyms

• reseda

Related terms

• mignonette pepper
• mignonette sauce

See also

• dyer's rocket
• Appendix:Colors

Further reading

• Reseda odorata on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• mignonette (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi.ɲɔ.nɛt/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

Noun

mignonette f (plural mignonettes)

1. Alternative form of mignonnette

Anagrams

• témoignent