Puce

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Puce
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #CC8899
RGBa (r, g, b) (204, 136, 153)
HSV (h, s, v) (345°, 33%, 80%)
a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Puce is a colour generally considered to be dark rose to brownish-purple. A few sources define "puce" simply as "dark brown".[1] It is occasionally referred to as pinkish-purple.

English usage dates from 1787. The word comes from French; puce literally means "flea". It is speculated that it refers to the colour of a squashed flea or the colour of a flea full of blood. Another theory is that the colour name comes from the flea's droppings of digested blood, which spread out in deep red stain when water contacts them.

The colour puce is usually defined with adjectives such as "dark", "deep", "intense" and even "brilliant". The colour example above is a lighter tint. On the other hand, the colour may refer to blue-lavender of the Pennyroyal flower, also named puce in French. The name derives from the use of pungent Pennyroyal to ward off fleas. [2]

Prunes, which are dried plums, can also be said to be puce coloured.


[edit] In Culture

In the film Santa Claus: The Movie the colour Puce is chosen for the magic lollipops manufactured by B.Z. Toys.

"Puce" is used, mostly as a joke, to unofficially refer to the non-existant sixth color in Magic: The Gathering.

The colour Puce is referred to in the movie Monsters, Inc. when Mike gives Sulley instructions regarding filing of paperwork ("Leave the Puce!")

In other languages