azure
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English asure, from Old French azur, derived from Arabic لَازَوَرْد (lāzaward, “lapis lazuli”), dropping the l as if it were equivalent to the French article l'. The Arabic is from Persian لاجورد (lâjvard, “lapis lazuli”), from the region of Lajward in Turkestan.
Compare with Italian azzurro and Spanish azul.
PronunciationEdit
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈæzjʊə/, /æˈzjʊə/, /ˈæʒɔː/, /æˈʒ(j)ʊə/, /ˈæʒ(j)ʊə/, /ˈæʒə/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈæʒɚ/, /əˈʒʊɹ/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /æˈzjʊə/, /əˈʒʉə/, /ˈæɪʒə/
Audio (US) (file)
NounEdit
azure (countable and uncountable, plural azures)
- (countable and uncountable) The clear blue colour of the sky; also, a pigment or dye of this colour.
- 1815, William Wordsworth, Extracts from An Evening Walk
- In robes of azure.
- 2014, William H. Gass, On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry (page 59)
- For our blues we have the azures and ceruleans, lapis lazulis, the light and dusty, the powder blues, the deeps: royal, sapphire, navy, and marine […]
- azure:
- 1815, William Wordsworth, Extracts from An Evening Walk
- (heraldry) A blue colour on a coat of arms, represented in engraving by horizontal parallel lines.
- 1997, Brault, Early Blazon:
- In Bb [Glover's Roll], the conventional letter B is used to indicate azure in most items.
- azure (heraldry):
- (poetic) The unclouded sky; the blue vault above.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- Not like those steps
On heaven's azure.
- 1889, Mathilde Blind, “[Poems of the Open Air.] Reapers.”, in The Ascent of Man, London: Chatto & Windus, […], OCLC 1017374996, page 140:
- Not a single cloud mars the flawless azure; / Not a shadow moves o'er the moveless crops; [...]
- Any of various widely distributed lycaenid butterflies of the genus Celastrina.
- Any of various Australasian lycaenid butterflies of the genus Ogyris.
- Lapis lazuli.
Alternative formsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
blue colour on a coat of arms
colour of the sky
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the blue sky
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lapis lazuli — see lapis lazuli
AdjectiveEdit
azure (not comparable)
- sky blue; resembling the clear blue colour of the unclouded sky
- Synonym: cerulean
- 1740, James Thomson, Rule, Britannia!
- When Britain first, at Heaven's command / Arose from out the azure main.
- cloudless
- (heraldry) In blazon, of the colour blue.
- 1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado
- ‘I forget your coat of arms.’
‘A human foot d’or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.’
- ‘I forget your coat of arms.’
- 1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado
TranslationsEdit
sky-blue coloured
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heraldry: of blue colour on a coat of arms
VerbEdit
azure (third-person singular simple present azures, present participle azuring, simple past and past participle azured)
- (transitive) To colour blue.
- 1907, The Sugar Beet (volume 28, page 271)
- Our readers are aware that much of the sugar sold in many countries goes through an azuring treatment; blue is added to granulated sugar with the view of making it appear whiter than it actually is.
- 1907, The Sugar Beet (volume 28, page 271)
TranslationsEdit
See alsoEdit
- (blues) blue; Alice blue, aqua, aquamarine, azure, baby blue, beryl, bice, bice blue, blue green, blue violet, blueberry, cadet blue, Cambridge blue, cerulean, cobalt blue, Copenhagen blue, cornflower, cornflower blue, cyan, Dodger blue, duck-egg blue, eggshell blue, electric-blue, gentian blue, ice blue, lapis lazuli, lovat, mazarine, midnight blue, navy, Nile blue, Oxford blue, peacock blue, petrol blue, powder blue, Prussian blue, robin's-egg blue, royal blue, sapphire, saxe blue, slate blue, sky blue, teal, turquoise, ultramarine, Wedgwood blue, zaffre (Category: en:Blues)
Colors in English · colors, colours (layout · text) | ||||
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white | gray, grey | black | ||
red; crimson | orange; brown | yellow; cream | ||
lime | green | mint | ||
cyan; teal | azure, sky blue | blue | ||
violet; indigo | magenta; purple | pink | ||
maroon |
FrenchEdit
PronunciationEdit
- IPA(key): /a.zyʁ/
- Homophones: azurent, azures
VerbEdit
azure
- inflection of azurer:
PortugueseEdit
NounEdit
azure m (uncountable)
- Alternative form of azur