Lavender
- HEX
- #BFA2E8
- RGB
- 191 162 232
- HSL
- 265° 60% 77%
- CMYK
- 18 30 0 9
Lavender or Lilac?
Bluer and more vivid than lilac.
Language
Lavender is recorded as a color in English from 1705. The plant's name is often traced to Latin lavare, to wash, because lavender scented baths and linen, but that may be folk etymology: Latin lividus, bluish, is another candidate.
Culture
In Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian Britain, lavender was one of the few colors a woman could wear in half-mourning, the gentler stage after full black (mourning-colors). In the 20th century it became a queer color: the 1950s Lavender Scare drove gay workers out of the US government, and in 1969 Betty Friedan called lesbians in the women's movement a lavender menace, a label activists then took back.
Kin
- Grey: Partners in half-mourning, the softer stage after black
- Lilac: Another flower purple worn as mourning eased
- Thistle: Another pale purple named after a flowering plant
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Lavender (color)' (first use 1705; half-mourning; Lavender Scare)
- Etymonline, 'lavender'
Hex values are screen approximations. Every page lists its sources.