Lavender (color)

Lavender (floral) (#B57EDC)

Lavender (web) (#E6E6FA)

Lavender is a pale tint of purple. It applies particularly to the color of the flower of the same name. The web color called lavender is displayed at right—it matches the color of the very palest part of the lavender flower; however, the more saturated color shown below as floral lavender more closely matches the average color of the lavender flower as shown in the picture and is the tone of lavender historically and traditionally considered lavender by the average person as opposed to those who are web site designers. The color lavender might be described as a medium purple or a light pinkish purple. The term lavender may also be used in general to apply to a wide range of pale, light, medium, or grayish purple colors, as well as some pale or light pinkish, magenta, or purple colors as well as some pale or light blueish-indigo colors. In paints, the color lavender is made by mixing purple and white paint.

The first recorded use of the word lavender as a color term in English was in 1705.

Lavender's Blue

"Lavender's Blue," (perhaps sometimes called "Lavender Blue,") is an English folk song and nursery rhyme dating to the 17th century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3483. It has been recorded in various forms since the 20th century and some pop versions have been hits in the US and UK charts.

Lyrics

Although there are as many as thirty verses to the song, and many variations of each verse, most modern versions take this form:

Origins

The earliest surviving version of the song is in a broadside printed in England between 1672 and 1685, under the name Diddle Diddle, Or The Kind Country Lovers. The broadside indicates it is to be sung to the tune "Lavenders Green", implying that a tune by that name was already in existence. The lyrics printed in the broadside are fairly bawdy, celebrating sex and drinking. According to the Traditional Ballad Index, "The singer tells his lady that she must love him because he loves her. He tells of a vale where young man and maid have lain together, and suggests that they might do the same, and that she might love him (and also his dog)." Here is the first of ten verses: