bishop's violet
- noun
- The artist mixed several shades to achieve the perfect bishop's violet for the portrait background.
Examples
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She chose a dress in bishop's violet for the evening gala, which made her stand out beautifully.
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The flowers in the garden ranged in color from pale pink to a deep bishop's violet.
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The walls were painted in a lovely shade of bishop's violet.
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She chose a dress in bishop's violet for the gala.
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The artist mixed several shades to achieve the perfect bishop's violet for the portrait background.
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She chose a dress in bishop's violet for the evening gala, which made her stand out beautifully.
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The walls were painted in a lovely shade of bishop's violet.
Synonyms
Having a blue-purple color like small garden flowers
A medium reddish purple that is a little bluer and lighter than deep purple
A color between red and purple that leans toward red
A purple color with a little red in it
How Purple
Surface Forms
Morphology
bishop's + violet
The head noun 'violet' clearly denotes the color, and the possessive 'bishop's' simply marks it as a particular variant (likely alluding to bishops' traditional purple garments). A B1 learner who knows 'bishop' and 'violet' will therefore infer this is a specific shade of violet, so the meaning is directly derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
The color bishop's violet may come from the rich purple robes that bishops used to wear. The word violet names the color and bishop's points to those robes, so the name now means 'a moderate reddish-purple color'.