What it doesn't mean
The two Victorian books checked here both give it a sharp meaning: 'Distrust' (Greenaway, 1884; Dumont, 1851) or 'Mistrust' (Dumont's word list).
They were not. The historian Beverly Seaton shows that the meanings differed from book to book and country to country. Lavender is notable because the books happen to agree.
What it really means
Lavender is soft to look at and sharp in meaning. In the Victorian language of flowers it stood for distrust.
That is not a modern guess. Kate Greenaway's illustrated Language of Flowers, published by Routledge in 1884 and free to read on Project Gutenberg, lists "Lavender" as "Distrust". Henrietta Dumont's Language of Flowers, published in Philadelphia more than thirty years earlier, says the same: "Distrust" in her chapter on the plant and "Mistrust" in her word list. That agreement is worth noticing, because the floral dictionaries usually disagreed. The historian Beverly Seaton, in The Language of Flowers: A History, shows that meanings differed from book to book and country to country. On lavender, two books an ocean apart happened to match.
Why distrust? Neither book says. The Chicago History Museum notes that the meanings were often taken, fairly arbitrarily, from poetry or a plant's medicinal uses, so a confident explanation would be invention.
The word has a second life as a colour. English has used "lavender" for a pale purple since 1840. In mid-twentieth-century America that colour word was turned against gay men, and the purge of gay employees from the federal government in the 1950s is now known as the Lavender Scare. The name comes from David K. Johnson's 2004 history of it.
The name of the plant itself goes back to Medieval Latin lavendula, probably tied in people's minds to lavare, "to wash", because lavender scented clean linen and baths.
Where it comes from
Medieval Latin — lavender
Latin — bluish, livid (possible source)
Latin — to wash (associated, not proven)
From Medieval Latin lavendula, perhaps from Latin lividus, 'bluish'. It was probably linked in people's minds with lavare, 'to wash', because the plant was used to scent washed linen and baths. Used as a colour adjective from 1840.
- 1851
Henrietta Dumont's Language of Flowers gives lavender as 'Distrust' in her chapter and 'Mistrust' in her word list.
- 1884
Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers lists 'Lavender' as 'Distrust'.
- 1950s
In the United States, 'lavender' as a colour word is turned against gay men ('lavender lads'), and the purge of gay federal employees is later called the Lavender Scare.
In real life
- A sprig of lavender looks gentle, but in a Victorian flower book it said 'I don't trust you'.
- She painted the bedroom lavender, a colour name English has used since the 1840s.
- Greenaway and Dumont disagree about plenty, but on lavender they both landed on distrust.
Questions
Q01What does lavender mean in the language of flowers?
Distrust. Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers (1884) lists 'Lavender' as 'Distrust', and Henrietta Dumont's 1851 book gives 'Distrust' in one place and 'Mistrust' in another.
Q02Why does lavender mean distrust?
The flower books do not say. The Chicago History Museum notes that floral meanings were often pulled, fairly arbitrarily, from poetry or from a plant's medicinal uses, so any neat explanation should be treated as a guess.
Q03Where does the word lavender come from?
From Medieval Latin lavendula, perhaps from Latin lividus, 'bluish'. It was probably associated with lavare, 'to wash', because the plant scented washed linen. 'Lavender' as a colour word dates from 1840.
Q04What was the Lavender Scare?
The mid-20th-century campaign that drove gay people out of United States government jobs, running alongside the Red Scare. The name comes from a 2004 history by David K. Johnson, who took it from Senator Everett Dirksen's phrase 'lavender lads'.
Sources
- Kate Greenaway (illustrator), Language of Flowers (Routledge, 1884) — Project Gutenberg.
- Henrietta Dumont, The Language of Flowers (Philadelphia, 1851) — Project Gutenberg.
- lavender (etymology) — Online Etymology Dictionary.
- Lavender Scare — Wikipedia.
- Beverly Seaton, The Language of Flowers: A History — University of Virginia Press.
- Speaking the Language of Flowers (With a Chicago Accent) — Chicago History Museum.