pavonated

English

Etymology

From Latin pāvō (“peacock”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpæv.ə.neɪ.tɪd/

Adjective

pavonated (comparative more pavonated, superlative most pavonated)

1. (dated, poetic or sciences) Colored like the neck of a peacock: peacock blue.
   • 1798, Dietrich Ludwig Gustav Karsten, A Description of the Minerals in the Leskean Museum, page 243:

     2181 Very dark copper red, slightly pavonated Copper Pyrites, in Quartz; from Freiberg. 2182 Very beautifully pavonated Copper Pyrites, with traversing slips of Siderocalcite; from Grosskamsdorf.

   • 2010 April 5, Michelle Lovric, The Book of Human Skin, A&C Black, →ISBN:

     She guided me into a courtyard whose thrumming intensity of blue could only have been created by a fusion of hyacinthine and pavonated cobalt exalted by lapis. This hot blue kingdom was planted with orange trees heavy with fruit.

   • 2019 May 30, Rosita Boland, Elsewhere: One Woman, One Rucksack, One Lifetime of Travel, Random House, →ISBN:

     The icebergs glowed different shades of blue: turquoise, cerulean, azure, pavonated, sapphire, ultramarine. When our Zodiac stopped to allow people to take photographs I just stared at the surreal magnificence of that glittering blue […]

Further reading

• “pavonated”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• 2022 October 14, Peter Isaacs, The Dictionary of Colors and Colored Words, Peter M. Isaacs, →ISBN:

  pavonated adj. colored like the neck of a peacock; of or having a brilliant bluish-green color