puce

Puce
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#CC8899
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(204, 136, 153)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(345°, 33%, 80%)
Source		[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Look up puce in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Puce (often misspelled as "puse", "peuse" or "peuce") is a color that is defined as ranging from light grayish red-violet (the version shown at right) to medium to dark purplish-brown, with the latter being the more widely accepted definition found in reputable sources. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the use of "puce" (in couleur puce) from 1787. The first recorded use of puce as a color name was in the 14th century, in the French language.^[1]

Etymology

Puce is the French word for flea. The color is said to be the color of the bloodstains remaining on linen or bedsheets even after being laundered from a flea's droppings or after a flea has been killed.

Bedbugs leave the same color stains from their droppings as part of their nightly wanderings on the surfaces of bedsheets, pillowcases, and blankets. The appearance of these small colored stains on ones bedding even after being laundered is one way to diagnose that one's bedroom has been invaded by bedbugs.

Puce in popular culture

Bottle collecting

• In the vintage-bottle-collecting hobby, "puce" is arguably the most desirable color.^[2]

Comics

• A collection of Walt Kelly's influential Pogo comics was called "The Pogo Puce Stamp Catalog". It had a puce cover.
• In the Dilbert comic strip, the boss's favorite color is puce, but he does not know that because he is mistakenly thinking of a primary color, as he does not know what puce is.^[3]

Games

• In the computer game NetHack potions are randomly generated with different colors or other descriptions; one of the colors is puce.
• In the board/card game The Great Khan Game by Tom Wham and Richard Hamblen issued by TSR, Inc. exists a mercenary card called "Admiral of the Puce Oliver Hazerdous".
• In the sandbox computer game Dwarf Fortress procedurally generated monsters can be attributed the color puce.

Film

• Kenneth Anger directed a short film called Puce Moment (1949).
• Spencer Tracy's character in the romantic comedy film Desk Set (1957) is on the telephone taking down a coworker's message for a "black velvet strapless..with what kind of a scarf.."Puce?!!"..I know how to spell it."
• The fantasy film Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) referenced "puce" for the color the magic lollipops that made children fly, including a humorous remark about it: "If this ever takes off, we could make this in liquid form: Puce Juice."
• In the made-for-TV movie Dance 'til Dawn (1988), the prom theme is "Paris in Puce."^[4] The theme is chosen by Christina Applegate's character, who also wears a puce gown, so that she can be "the only girl here who goes with the room."^[5]
• In the animated, adventure comedy film Monsters, Inc. (2001), Mike hands his paperwork to Sully, and tells him to "leave the puce". Sully initially has no idea what puce is until he flips through the paperwork, and comments "Oh. That's puce."
• In the comedy horror film Fright Night (2011), Anton Yelchin's character wears collector's shoes referred to as being puce-colored, with Colin Farrell's character proclaiming that "it takes a real man to wear puce".^[6]

History

• French Queen Marie Antoinette's (1755–1793) favorite color was puce.^[7]

Literature

• In the King Arthur legends, Sir Gareth fights Sir Perymones, who is a knight called The Puce Knight.^[8][9]
• In the Iliningrad Series by Marc Winsland, puce is often used as a curtain backdrop for President Lincoln Sheritan when he delivers speeches out on the campaign trail.^{[citation needed]}
• In the novel Ulysses (1922) by James Joyce, the character Buck Mulligan mentions his desire to wear puce gloves.
• In non-fiction book The Bookseller of Kabul (2003) by Åsne Seierstad, puce is used to describe Sultan's face when he is intensely angry.
• In the Newberry Award winning children's novel The Summer of the Swans (1971) by Betsy Cromer Byars, the main character Sara dyes a pair of orange sneakers baby blue, and finds the resulting color quite ugly. Her friend Mary tells her that that color is called puce.

Music

• In the song "A more humane Mikado (Let the Punishment Fit the Crime)" in the comic opera The Mikado (1885) by Gilbert and Sullivan, the title character sings of the dire fate of the woman "who stains her gray hair puce".
• In the song "I Love to Color" from his children's album Pockets, Joe Wise talks at length about the characteristics and uses of the color puce.
• Puce features as a color in Ken Nordine's spoken-word jazz album Colors (1967).

Television

• In the animated comedy television series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (1959–1964), Bullwinkle refers to his high school's colors as pomegranate and puce.
• In episode 18, "I Was a Teenage Monster" (1967), of the situation comedy television series The Monkees (1966–1968), Richard Kiel's character, after a failed attempt to reverse a mad scientist's brain experiment on him, takes on the characteristics of an interior designer and says, "I would do this room in French Provincial. The color scheme should be lavender and puce."
• In the PBS kids television show Cyberchase (2002–2010), antagonist "The Hacker" often refers to puce as his favorite color, being the shade of choice for both his space ship and cape.
• In the episode "Comet Kermilian" (2008) of the Disney Channel animated comedy television series Phineas and Ferb (since 2008), Linda references having a puce awareness ribbon for Antidisestablishmentarianism.
• In an episode of the 1960's American TV show, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the protagonist, superspy Napoleon Solo, enters a fashionable women's clothing store while chasing an enemy agent. The store clerk, a woman, asks something like "Can I help you with anything, Sir?" He says "I'd like to see something in ... puce." She went off to check and Solo continued on.

See also

Color portal

• List of colors

References