Puce

Puce

infobox color
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hex= CC8899
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Puce is a color that is defined as ranging from reddish-brown to purplish-brown, with the latter being the more widely-accepted definition found in reputable sources. It can be used as either a noun (the name of the color) or as an adjective (something having that color).

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the use of "puce" (in "couleur puce") from 1775. The word comes from French; puce literally means "flea", as the usual flea coloration is either dark reddish-brown or dark purplish-brown.

According to available sources, the etymology of "puce" is French "puce" from Old French "pulce", from Latin "pūlic-", "pūlex".

Puce in popular culture

Comics
*A collection of Walt Kelly's influential Pogo comics was called "The Pogo Puce Stamp Catalog". It had a puce cover.
*In the "Dilbert" comic strip, the boss' favorite color is puce, but he doesn't know that because he is mistakenly thinking of a primary color, as he doesn't know what puce is.Games
*In the computer game "NetHack" potions are randomly generated with different colors or other descriptions. One of the colors is puce.Music
*In the number "A more humane Mikado (Let the Punishment Fit the Crime)" in the operetta "The Mikado" by Gilbert and Sullivan, the title character sings of the dire fate of the woman "who stains her grey hair puce".
*In the song "I Love to Color" off his children's album "Pockets", Joe Wise talks at length about the characteristics and uses of the color puce. Film
*Kenneth Anger made a short film called "Puce Moment" in 1949.
*"" referenced "puce" for the color the magic lollipops that made children fly, including a humorous remark about it: "If this ever takes off, we could make this in liquid form: Puce Juice."
* In the film "Monsters, Inc.", Sullivan comments on having "no idea what puce is" when sorting files to take to the office. He learns soon after.
* In the episode "I Was a Teenage Monster" from the American television show "The Monkees", a Frankenstein-type monster (Richard Kiel) looks around his laboratory and says "I would do this room in lavender and puce."
* In the British television show "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin", one slogan for the fictional Grot stores is "Grot has lots of things that aren’t of any use, some of them are red, some of them are green and some of them are puce."
*In the 1988 made-for-tv movie "Dance 'til Dawn", the prom theme is "Paris in Puce"
*In "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." episode S02E16, "The Dippy Blonde Affair," first broadcast 07 Jan 66, Napoleon Solo stalls a sales clerk by asking if the dress he has selected is available in puce.
* In The BBC television show "Waiting For God" Season 3 Disk 1 Episode 3 "Looking For Work". Marion Ballard says to Diana Trent about her husband Geoffrey Ballard "It's about my fellow traveler, little Geoffie. His aura has become quite puce since Tom got that job."


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  • puce — puce …   Dictionnaire des rimes

  • puce — [ pys ] n. f. • pulce 1170; lat. pulex, pulicis 1 ♦ Insecte sauteur (siphonaptères), de couleur brune, parasite de l homme et de quelques animaux. Être piqué, mordu par une puce. « À Toulon, ce furent les puces [...] Toute la nuit, il se gratta » …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • puce — PUCE. s. f. Sorte d insecte, de vermine qui s attache principalement sur la peau des hommes, des chiens, &c. Un enfant tout mangé de puces. un chien tout plein de puces, tout couvert de puces. le saut d une puce. picqueure de puce. morsures de… …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • Puce — Puce, a. [F., fr. puce a flea, L. pulex, pulicis.] Of a dark brown or brownish purple color. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • puce — [pju:s] adj [Date: 1700 1800; : French; Origin: couleur de puce flea color , from Latin pulex flea ] dark brownish purple in colour >puce n [U] …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • puce — [ pjus ] adjective something that is puce has a color between dark brown or dark red and purple …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • puce — (n.) 1787, from Fr. puce flea, from L. pucilem (nom. pulex) flea, from PIE *plou flea (Cf. Skt. plusih, Gk. psylla, O.C.S. blucha, Lith. blusa, Arm. lu flea ). It is the color of a flea …   Etymology dictionary

  • puce — [pyo͞os] n. [Fr, lit., a flea < L pulex, flea] brownish purple adj. of the color puce …   English World dictionary

  • Puce — (spr. Pühs), Flohfarbe, ein schönes Gelbbraun …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Puce à A.D.N. — ● Puce à A.D.N. biopuce …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • puce — pȕce sr <G ta, N mn pucèta, G pucétā, zb. pȕcād> DEFINICIJA v. dugme …   Hrvatski jezični portal

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