mignonette

English

Etymology
A botanical illustration of the mignonette (Reseda odorata; sense 1)[1]

From French mignonette, from mignon (“dainty”) + -ette (“diminutive suffix”).

Pronunciation

Noun

mignonette (plural mignonettes)

  1. A plant, Reseda odorata, having greyish-green flowers with orange-coloured stamens, and exhaling a delicious fragrance. In Africa it is a low shrub, but further north it is usually an annual herb. [from early 18th c.]
  2. A mignonette tree (Lawsonia inermis), source of the dye henna.
  3. A mignonette vine
  4. A greyish-green colour, like that of the flowers of the plant.
    mignonette colour:  

Synonyms

Translations
greyish-green colour — See also translations at reseda

Adjective

mignonette (comparative more mignonette, superlative most mignonette)

  1. Of a greyish-green colour, like that of the flowers of the plant.
    • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 44:
      She wore a dishabille of mignonette-green silk and bead-diapered head-dress that added several inches to her height […].

Synonyms

See also

References
  1. Edward Step; cultural drections edited by William Watson (1896) Favourite Flowers of Garden and Greenhouse, London; New York, N.Y.: Frederick Warne & Co., OCLC 3212995, plate 31 (facing page 67).

Further reading

French

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /mi.ɲɔ.nɛt/
  • Audio (Paris)(file)

Noun

mignonette f (plural mignonettes)

  1. Alternative form of mignonnette

Anagrams
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