lilac

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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From obsolete French lilac (now lilas), from Arabic لِيلَك (līlak).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lilac (plural lilacs)

  1. A large shrub of the genus Syringa, especially Syringa vulgaris, bearing white, pale-pink, or purple flowers.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168:
      Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
  2. A flower of the lilac shrub.
    • 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:
      [] O death, I cover you over with roses and early lilies, / But mostly and now the lilac that blooms the first, / Copious I break, I break the sprigs from the bushes, / With loaded arms I come, pouring for you, / For you and the coffins all of you O death.
  3. A pale purple color, the color of some lilac flowers.
    lilac:  
  4. A cat having a lilac-colored (pale brown) coat.

Translations

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Adjective

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lilac (comparative more lilac, superlative most lilac)

  1. Having a pale purple colour.
  2. Of a cat or its fur: having a pale brown colour, lighter than chocolate.

Translations

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Cornish: laylok
  • Irish: líológ
  • Manx: laylac
  • Scottish Gaelic: liagh
  • Welsh: leloc

See also

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Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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lilac m (plural lilacs)

  1. archaic form of lilas