"Submission": "Mauve" adj. fig.

[Joel S. Berson]

Thanks, Charles and Jesse.  So (since I didn't
understand the allusion during the performance)--

Wilde, Oscar
An Ideal Husband
1895

Act 1

Lord Goring: Afraid I can't, thanks. I have
promised to look in at the Hartlocks'. I believe
they have got a mauve Hungarian band that plays
mauve Hungarian music. See you soon. Good-bye!

mauve (a)
new sense OED3 fig. [OED3 1870- for literal uses]
note OED2 s.v. "maladif":  1950 D. Gascoyne
Vagrant 55 For a maladif, mandarin-miened, mauve melody-man.

Wikipedia:
The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the
"Mauve Decade," [JSB: as early as 1895, given the
Wilde quotation?] because William Henry Perkin's
aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that
colour in fashion, and also as the "Gay
Nineties", under the then-current usage of the
word "gay" which referred simply to merriment and
frivolity, with no connotation of homosexuality
as in present-day usage. The phrase, "The Gay
Nineties," was not coined until 1926.

Joel

At 6/19/2006 09:20 AM, you wrote:
>Hey, Joel--
>
>Here's the entry. (There's not much FIGURATIVE there,
>though!).
>
>Best wishes.
>
>--Charlie
>
>
>
>  B. adj. Of the colour mauve.
>
>1860 C. M. YONGE Stokesley Secret (1861) ix. 137 Her mauve
>muslin..flounced up to her waist. 1877 W. THOMSON Voy.
>Challenger I. ii. 126 Some beautiful mauve patches of almond-
>blossom. 1924 E. SITWELL Sleeping Beauty xx. 77 The mauve
>summer rain Is falling again. 1972 N. FREELING Long Silence
>II. 156 She..was being given a choice between crème de
>cacao, crème de banane and a mauve concoction known in
>Holland as Parfait Amour. 1991 P. BARKER Regeneration vi. 57
>Mrs Prior was a small upright woman, neatly dressed in a
>dark suit and mauve blouse.
>     C. Compounds. mauve-colour, -coloured adjs. Also
>modifying the names of other colours, as mauve-pink, -red.
>
>1859 Blackwood's Lady's Mag. 46 61 The lower part of the
>skirt is trimmed with ruches of *mauve-colour crape.
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>-------------------
>  1859 R. F. BURTON Central Afr. in Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc.
>29 427 Beads..*mauve-coloured round or oval. 1939 Geol.
>Föreningens i Stockholm Förhandl. 60 622 Muscovite occurs in
>the somewhat unusual form of deep mauve-coloured, compact,
>cryptocrystalline masses. 1991 C. HIAASEN Native Tongue
>(1992) xxx. 335 Carrie smeared the bridge of her nose with
>mauve-colored zinc oxide.
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>-------------------
>  1869 R. F. BURTON Explor. Highlands Brazil I. 66 The
>glorious *mauve-pink bracts of the Bougainvillea. 1899 B. W.
>WARHURST Colour Dict. 44 Lilac-rose is a dull
>rose..which..as a tint will appear as..Mauve-pink. 1952 A.
>G. L. HELLYER Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 92 Catalpa
>Fargesii..with its fine var. Duclouxii with large mauve-pink
>flowers. 1990 Plants & Gardens Autumn 30/1 The flower..is a
>strange dusky red deepening in colour towards the stalk on
>the outside and a paler mauve-pink on the inside.
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>-------------------
>  1917 D. H. LAWRENCE Look! We have come Through! 57 Their
>*mauve-red petals on the cloth.

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