violet

plural violets

1. A plant or flower of the genus Viola, especially the fragrant Viola odorata; (inexact) similar-looking plants and flowers.

   Albertus Magnus, the thirteenth century philosopher and occultist, states that coriander, valerian, and violet are love producing herbs.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 68

   1 more example

   Refreshed by their cooling bath of evening dew, the violets and other nocturnal flowers emitted a pleasant fragrance over the fields, but from the bogs and the rivulets came up now and then damp, penetrating gusts, that sent an icy chill through me.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 160

   Synonyms: rooster

2. figurativelyA person thought to resemble V. odorata, especially in its beauty and delicacy.

   ‘Tom,’ he said, ‘you are looking at a crushed violet, a spent egg, a squeezed tube.’

   1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 13

3. The color of most violets; the colour evoked by the shortest visible wavelengths between 380 and 435 nm, an additive tertiary colour.
4. Clothes and (ecclesiastical) vestments of such a colour.
5. perfumesThe characteristic scent of V. odorata.
6. UKdialectalSynonym of onion (“vegetable”).

   Synonyms: onion

comparative violeter · superlative violetest

1. Of a violet colour.

1. A female given name from English.

   My name is Violet Brown. - - - If I sound colorful, I am not. It's nought but a pair of names, stamped on me by two people who never met. First, my mother. She was fond of romantic novels with "Violets" in them.

   2009, Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna, Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 262

   2 more examples

   It may be as well to say, by way of parenthesis, that her real name was Violante,―at least, such was the name by which her mother had her christened. But her father thought it much too long, and said it was better to call her Violet.

   1836, Marian Dora Malet Beasley, Violet Woodville, Carey, Lea & Blanchard, page 16

   Her Pakeha name was Violet, and everybody called her that because her Maori name was too long. And my Nanny, she was just like a violet; shy and small and hiding her face in her petals if the sun blazed too strong.

   1972, Witi Ihimaera, Pounamu, Pounamu, Heinemann, →ISBN, page 111

2. A surname.
3. A number of places in the United States:
   1. A census-designated place in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana.
   2. An unincorporated community in Polk County, Missouri.
   3. An unincorporated community in Nueces County, Texas.
   4. An unincorporated community in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
4. A community in Loyalist, Lennox and Addington County, Ontario, Canada.