Few hues are more beguiling and more reviled than this grouping, the last stop on the rainbow and the tacked-on v at the end of that schoolchild’s mnemonic, Roy G. But it’s hard to say with precision, because the purples are strange ones, polarizing, and violets are even more so. A subset of violet, which is a subset of purple, periwinkle denotes a precise shade that appears somewhat brighter than lavender, bluer than lilac, clearer than mauve, and dimmer than amethyst. Vinca is a complex little plant, and periwinkle, named for its blossoms, is an equally complex color. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of Madame Monet, ca. Yet I grow it, partially because I know what it can do, what it has done. Many New England gardeners do not plant it for this reason. It chokes out other plants, stealing too many nutrients for native ground cover to grow. Vinca-or periwinkle or creeping myrtle or dogbane, as she’s also called-is invasive to North America. I thought all plants that grew in my yard were meant to be there, and I thought all poisonous things were bad. It’s one of the many easy assumptions of childhood. I could eat the royal-purple dog violets, but I was not to pick the vinca. I would have been delighted to know even a fraction of vinca lore back then, but I knew nothing except she was poison. My mother cultivated periwinkle in our forested Massachusetts backyard, encouraging the hardy green vines to trail over the boulders and under the ferns. I grew up calling her vinca, a pretty little two-syllable name, taken from her proper Latin binomial, Vinca minor. The flower is sometimes associated with marriage (and may have been the “something blue” in the traditional wedding rhyme), sometimes associated with sex work (because of its supposed aphrodisiac properties) and also with executions. In Italy, she is called fiore di morte (flower of death), because it was common to lay wreaths of the evergreen on the graves of dead children. You might know her by one of her more fabulous monikers, like sorcerer’s violet or fairy’s paintbrush. It’s a color that almost doesn’t belong here-it’s a plant that certainly doesn’t. The delicate mist is an impossibly soft color, like clouds descending into twilight, like the snowfall in an Impressionist masterpiece. When the periwinkles are blooming, it’s hard to have eyes for anything else. In a reversal of fortunes, the stand of gracious Maine trees becomes secondary to the ground cover below. Send us feedback about these examples.On a stretch of rural road not far from my house, there is a small wood where, once a year, for just a few short and cold days, the ground turns a magnificent shade of purple. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dusky.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. 2023 On the second floor of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, visitors arrive at an atypical display: Two large, square nature studies in dusky light by Claude Monet, removed from their frames, hang from a vertical island with a large gap between them. 2023 The upholstery is a dusky velour with a warm brownness that appears pure black in dim light. Lauren Phillips, Better Homes & Gardens, 18 Apr. Emily Langer, Washington Post, All are available in various sizes to fit your bed, and the colors strike a warm, dusky note, with options such as Warm Clay, Blue Marina, and Desert Stripe. Bumbry mastered in her early years onstage. 2020 Amneris is a canonical role in the dusky mezzo-soprano repertoire, which Ms. Tara Stevens, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 June 2021 Even without tortilla chips, Chilaquil brings the spirit of chilaquiles to campechana tacos with a thin, crispy layer of fried cheese folded into the tortilla along with seared carne asada and pork al pastor with a dusky red spice both zesty and sweet ($11 for two). Amelia Nierenberg, New York Times, My midcentury-modern-style kitchen chairs came from a no-name stall on a dusky little square near the now rather chic Souk Cherifia my bold cream, orange, green, and black striped curtains from the tiniest hole-in-the-wall near the Palais Bahia specializing in antique African cloth. Bon Appétit, 3 June 2022 As the pandemic ebbs, restaurants are trying to coax people to eat out, and the seduction of a dining room is part of the get - dusky candlelight and uninterrupted, eye-to-eye conversation. Recent Examples on the Web The handles come in a variety of colors, from dusky blue to sage green.
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