violet

/vuy"euh lit/, n.

1. any chiefly low, stemless or leafy-stemmed plant of the genus Viola, having purple, blue, yellow, white, or variegated flowers. Cf. violet family.

2. any such plant except the pansy and the viola.

3. the flower of any native, wild species of violet, as distinguished from the pansy: the state flower of Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

4. any of various similar plants of other genera.

5. reddish-blue, a color at the opposite end of the visible spectrum from red, an effect of light with a wavelength between 400 and 450 nm.

adj.

6. of the color violet; reddish-blue: violet hats.

[1300-50; ME < OF violete, equiv. to viole ( < L viola violet) + -ete -ET]

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I

Any of the approximately 500 species of herbaceous plants or low shrubs that make up the genus Viola, which includes the small, solid-coloured violets and the larger-flowered, often multicoloured violas and pansies.

Many Viola species have two types of flowers: the showy spring flower is infertile; the less conspicuous summer flower is self-fertilizing. The best-known species of Viola have heart-shaped leaves. The popular florist's violets, consisting of several hybrids (many of them V. odorata), are usually called sweet violets. The family Violaceae, to which Viola belongs, has members worldwide; they are typically small trees and shrubs that grow as low vegetation beneath the taller trees of forests. The so-called African violet belongs to the gesneriad family. See also dogtooth violet.

II

(as used in expressions)

African violet

dogtooth violet

Price Mary Violet Leontyne

Robinson Joan Violet

Joan Violet Maurice

Edith Anna Oenone Somerville and Violet Florence Martin

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