Puce

This box shows the color puce.
 

Puce is a medium grayish red-violet colour.

Puce colours may be pale grayish red-violet, grayish red or brownish-purple colours.

Basically, puce colours are reddish purple colours mixed with gray or brown. A wide range of tones of puce are shown below.

Chinese dried plums, a favorite snack among Chinese people worldwide, can be said to be puce coloured.

Where the name came from

The name is from the French word puce which means "flea". Some people say that the colour name comes from the colour of a squashed flea or the colour of a flea full of blood. Other people say that colour name comes from the flea's droppings of digested blood, which spread out in deep red stain when water contacts them. Still others say that the colour name means the colour of the belly of a flea.

On the other hand, the colour name may refer to blue-lavender of the Pennyroyal flower, also named puce in French. The name may come from the use of strong-smelling Pennyroyal to ward off fleas.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) dates the use of "puce" (in couleur puce)in English from 1787. The first recorded use of puce as a color name was in the 14th century, in the French language.

Meaning of puce

Tones of puce colour comparison chart

References

  1. ↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 202; Color Sample of Puce: Page 37 Plate 7 Color Sample H4