In Terrance's colourful gargantuan quotation, Rabelais (1.9) excepts >the >ancient Syracusans > >and certain Argives They may have preferred Tyrian purple: http://www.chriscooksey.demon.co.uk/tyrian/index.html I hear that "mauve" is French for the pink or purple pleasant mallow flower: http://www.macore.com/gu/01320642.htm