Lavender is a light shade of purple or violet. It applies particularly to the color of the flower of the same name.
The color lavender might be described as a medium purple, a pale bluish purple, or a light pinkish-purple. The term lavender may be used in general to apply to a wide range of pale, light, or grayish-purples, but only on the blue side; lilac is pale purple on the pink side. In paints, the color lavender is made by mixing purple and white paint.
The web color called lavender, displayed adjacent, matches the color of the palest part of the flower. However, the more saturated color known as floral lavender more closely matches the average color of the lavender flower, and is the tone of lavender historically and traditionally considered lavender by average people as opposed to website designers.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill See discussion of color lavender, Page 163; See color Sample of Lavender—Page 109 Plate 43 Color Sample C5 (Note that the color sample of lavender shown in the book A Dictionary of Color (the world standard for color matching before the introduction of computers) matches the shade of lavender displayed above under the heading "Lavender (floral)" )
Historical development of the concept of the color The first recorded use of the word lavender as a color term in English was in 1705.
Originally, the name lavender only applied to flowers. By 1930, the book A Dictionary of ColorMaerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill identified three major shades of lavender—[floral] lavender, lavender gray, and lavender blue, and in addition a fourth shade of lavender called old lavender (a darker lavender gray) (all four of these shades of lavender are shown below). By 1955, the publication of the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (a color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps), now on the Internet,ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)—Color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps—See various shades of the color Lavender displayed on indicated page: listed dozens of different shades of lavender. Today, although the color floral lavender (the color of the flower of the lavender plant) remains the standard for lavender, just as there are many shades of pink (light red, light rose, and light magenta colors), there are many shades of lavender (some light magenta, some light purple, [mostly] light violet [as well as some grayish-violet], and some light indigo colors).
Variations Amethyst
+ Amethyst as a quaternary color on the RYB color wheel
The color amethyst is a moderate, transparent violet. Its name is derived from the stone amethyst, a form of quartz. Amethyst is the birthstone for those born in February.
The first recorded use of amethyst as a color name in English was in 1572.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 189; Color Sample of Amethyst: Page 113 Plate 45 Color Sample J8
Though the color of natural amethyst varies from purple to yellow, the amethyst color referred to here is the moderate purple color most commonly associated with amethyst stones. There is disagreement as to the cause of the purple color of the amethyst stone. Some believe that the color is due to the presence of manganese, while others have suggested that the amethyst color could be from ferric thiocyanate or sulfur found in amethyst stones.
Deep lavender (web color medium purple)
Displayed at right is the web color medium purple which is equivalent to deep medium violet or deep lavender.
English lavender
Displayed at right is the color English lavender.
English lavender is a medium light tone of grayish pinkish lavender.
The source of this color is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #17-3617 TPX—English Lavender.
Heliotrope
The color heliotrope is shown at right. Another name for this color is psychedelic lavender because this color was a popular color often used in the hippie psychedelic poster art of the late 1960s for the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. These posters were sold in the head shops of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and were drawn and produced by such artists as Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin, and Victor Moscoso.
Languid lavender
Displayed at right is the color languid lavender. The source of this color is the Plochere Color System, a color system formulated in 1948 that is widely used by interior designers.Plochere Color System:
Lavender (floral)
At right is displayed the color Lavender (floral). This color matches the color shown as "lavender" (viewed under a full-spectrum fluorescent lamp) in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color (reference below), the world standard for color names before the introduction of computers. This color may also be called floral lavender. It is a medium violet.
This tone of lavender would be the approximate color resulting from a mix of 50% violet paint and 50% white paint.
This tone of lavender may be regarded as actual lavender and the other tones displayed in this article can be regarded as all variations on this shade.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Color Sample of Lavender—Page 109 Plate 43 Color Sample C5 (The color sample of lavender shown in A Dictionary of Color matches the tone of lavender displayed above under the heading "Lavender (floral)")
This lavender also closely matches the color given as lavender in a basic purple .
Lavender blue
Lavender blue was listed in A Dictionary of Color as one of the three major variations of lavender in 1930 along with lavender gray (shown above) and [floral] lavender (shown below). It is identified as being the same color as periwinkle. The first use of the term lavender blue as a color term was in 1926.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 196—Lavender blue shown as one of the three major variations of lavender under heading lavender; Page 190—Lavender blue is listed as blue-lavender, first use of the color term is identified as 1926, and the color is identified with periwinkle. The color periwinkle was named after the flower of the same name.
Lavender blush
Displayed at right is the web color lavender blush. It is a pale pinkish tone of lavender.
Lavender gray
The historical name for this color is lavender gray. It is listed in A Dictionary of Color as one of the three major variations of lavender in 1930 along with lavender blue (shown below) and [floral] lavender (also shown below).Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 197 (This book also designates a fourth shade of lavender, called old lavender, also shown below). This color is similar to Prismacolor colored pencil PC 1026, Greyed Lavender.
Lavender mist (web color lavender)
The color designated as the web color lavender is a very pale tint of lavender that in other (artistic) contexts may be described as lavender mist.
Lavender pink
After the introduction of the Munsell color system, in which purple, described as equivalent to red-violet, is described as one of the five psychological primary colors along with red, yellow, green, and blue, some people began to think of lavender as being somewhat more pinkish color. This color can be described as lavender pink or pale pinkish-purple when purple is defined as equivalent to red-violet as artists do.
This tone of lavender, displayed at right, is the color designated as lavender (color #74) in the list of Crayola crayon colors. This version of "lavender" is a lot pinker than the other shades of lavender shown here.
Lavender purple (purple mountain majesty)
Displayed at right is the color purple mountain majesty, a Crayola color since 1993. This color may be regarded as a medium lavender gray.
This color was the color called lavender in Crayola crayons before 1958, when Crayola switched to calling the color shown above as lavender pink as being lavender. See the website "Lost Crayola Crayon Colors". Because of that, another name for this color is lavender purple.
This color is a representation of the way mountains look when they are far away.
Medium lavender magenta (web color plum)
At right is displayed the color medium lavender magenta which is equivalent to the web color version of plum (pale plum).
This color may be regarded both as a tone of lavender since it is a light color between rose and blue and as a light medium tone of magenta because its red and blue values are equal (the color signature of a tone of magenta for computer display).
Old lavender
The dark lavender gray color displayed at right is called old lavender. It is a dark grayish-violet.
The first recorded use of old lavender as a color name in English was in the year 1924.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200
Pale lavender
At right is displayed the pale tint of lavender shown as lavender in sample 209 in the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names.
Pink lavender
The color pink lavender is displayed at right.
The source of this color is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #14-3207 TPX—Pink Lavender.
Soap
The color soap is displayed at right. Soap is a color formulated by Crayola in 1994 as one of the colors in its Magic Scent specialty box of colors.
This color is a representation of soap scented with lavender, one of the most popular scents for soap.
Twilight lavender
The color twilight lavender is displayed at right. Twilight lavender is a color formulated by Crayola in 1990 as one of the colors in its Silver Swirls specialty box of metallic colors.
Although this is supposed to be a metallic color, there is no mechanism for displaying metallic colors on a computer.
Wisteria
The color wisteria is displayed at right. Wisteria, a light medium violet color is equivalent to light lavender.
The Prismacolor colored pencil PC 956, which used to be called light violet and is now called lilac (the actual color of the colored pencil is equivalent to wisteria rather than lilac) is this color.
Wisteria in this exact shade is one of the Crayola crayon colors on the list of Crayola crayon colors. It was formulated as a Crayola color in 1993. The first recorded use of wisteria as a color name in English was in 1892.Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 207; Color Sample of Wisteria: Page 105 Plate 41 Color Sample E8
In culture Fashion
In the formal rules of mourning dress in Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian Britain, lavender was one of the few colors generally considered acceptable for women's clothing during the period of half-mourning, during which the bereaved was considered to still be in mourning and required to dress in sober, muted tones, but was not expected to wear the all-black garments of full mourning. Lavender roses are symbolic of "love at first sight". In 1995 actress Uma Thurman wore a notable lavender colored dress by Prada to the Academy Award ceremonies, where she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
LGBTQ
Lavender is a color that can represent the LGBTQ community.