Friday, January 4, 2013

violescent

violescent \vahy-uh-LES-uhnt\, adjective:

Tending to a violet color: a violescent twilight sky.

Scriabin's prelude is dark in color, violescent, like moiré unfurling in the evening wind.
-- Gabriele D'Annunzio, Notturno
The portrait was vile, a dirty grey colour with large violescent patches.
-- Emile Zola, Thérèse Raquin

Violescent is clearly related to the more common word violet. The suffix -escent means "beginning to show" as in the word luminescent.

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