azure

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 Classical Persian لاجورد (lājward, “lapis lazuli”), from the region of Lajward in Badakhshan.

Compare with Italian azzurro and Spanish azul.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæʒ.ə/, /ˈæz.jʊə/, /æzˈjʊə/, /əˈzjʊə/, sometimes also /ˈeɪʒ.ə/
  • Homophone: Asia (/ˈeɪʒə/)
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæʒ.ɚ/, /ˈæz.jɚ/, /əˈʒʊɹ/, /əˈʒɝ/, /əˈzjʊɹ/, /əˈzjɝ/, sometimes also /eɪ-/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ), -ɜː(ɹ)

azure (countable and uncountable, plural azures)

1. (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:  

2. (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):  

3. (poetic) The unclouded sky; the blue vault above.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     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, page 140:

     Not a single cloud mars the flawless azure; / Not a shadow moves o'er the moveless crops; [...]

4. Any of various widely distributed lycaenid butterflies of the genus Celastrina.
5. Any of various Australasian lycaenid butterflies of the genus Ogyris.
6. Lapis lazuli.

• (blue color on a coat of arms): az., b., bl.

azure (not comparable)

1. 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.

2. Cloudless.
3. (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.’

azure (third-person singular simple present azures, present participle azuring, simple past and past participle azured)

1. (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.

• (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, dark blue, Dodger blue, duck-egg blue, eggshell blue, electric blue, gentian blue, ice blue, lapis lazuli, light blue, 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)}

	metals		main colours				less common colours
tincture	or	argent	gules	azure	sable	vert	purpure	tenné	orange	sanguine
depiction
roundel (in parentheses: semé):	bezant (bezanty)	plate (platy)	torteau (tortelly)	hurt (hurty)	pellet (pellety), ogress	pomme	golpe (golpy)	orange (semé of oranges)		guze (semé of guzes)
goutte (noun) / gutty (adj) thereof:	(goutte / gutty) d'or (of gold)	d'eau (of water)	de sang (of blood)	de larmes (of tears)	de poix (of pitch)	d'huile / d'olive (olive oil)
	special roundel	furs								additional, uncommon tinctures:
tincture	fountain, syke: barry wavy argent and azure	ermine	ermines, counter-ermine	erminois	pean	vair	counter-vair	potent	counter-potent	bleu celeste, brunâtre, carnation, cendrée (iron, steel, acier), copper, murrey
depiction

• IPA^(key): /a.zyʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: azurent, azures

azure

1. inflection of azurer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

azure m (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of azur