Lilac (color)

Lilac is a light shade of purple representing the average color of most lilac flowers. The colors of some lilac flowers may be equivalent to the colors shown below as pale lilac, rich lilac, or deep lilac. However, there are other lilac flowers that are colored red-violet.

The first recorded use of the term lilac as an English color name was in 1775.

Pale lilac
Pale lilac or Pale lavender is the color represented as lilac in the ISCC-NBS color list. The source of this color is sample 209 in the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955).



Bright lilac
The color bright lilac (displayed on the right) is the color labeled lilac by Crayola in 1994 as one of the colors in its Magic Scent specialty box of colors.



Rich lilac
Rich lilac, a rich tone of lilac labeled lilac at Pourpre.com (a popular French color list), is shown at right. Another name for this color is bright French lilac.

French lilac
The color French lilac is displayed at right. This color was formulated for use in interior design, where a medium dark violet color is desired. The first recorded use of French lilac as a color name in the English language was in 1814.

The normalized color coordinates for french lilac are identical to pomp and power, first recorded as a color name in English in 1950.

In nature
The lilac-breasted roller is a member of the roller family of birds. It is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula.

In culture
Lilac was a color associated with the final stages of mourning in English and European cultures.

Effect Lilac chaser.

Book and film Lilac Ball.