azure
- Of a bright blue color like a cloudless sky; sky-blue.
- Also used as a noun referring to the blue color itself or, in heraldry, the tincture blue.
In a sentence
- The hikers emerged from the forest to find an azure sky stretched endlessly above the mountain meadow.
- In medieval manuscripts, the robes of the Virgin Mary were often painted in costly azure pigment made from ground lapis lazuli.
Usage note. In heraldry, 'azure' is the precise technical term for the color blue; in poetry, it often evokes not just color but the limitless expanse of sky, carrying connotations of freedom and clarity.
Where it comes from
English azure — “sky-blue color” · entered English 14th c.
From Middle English 'azure,' borrowed from Old French 'azur,' which came from Medieval Latin 'azura,' itself derived from Arabic 'lāzaward' (lapis lazuli, the blue gemstone), named after 'Lāzaward,' a place in Central Asia where lapis lazuli was mined. The initial 'l' was lost in transmission, likely because French speakers mistook it for the definite article 'l'.' The word entered English in the 14th century.