Parma violet

noun

1. a variety of the sweet violet, Viola odorata, that is the source of an essential oil used in perfumery.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Parma violet¹

1855–60; after Parma, Italy

Example Sentences

There’s Mystical Unicorn gin liqueur from Aldi, which apparently tastes of marshmallow and candy floss, and Parma Violet gin from Asda, which must taste of nightmares.

From The Guardian

Star Baker Michael’s cake has split down the middle, revealing some sort of…parma violet filling?

From The Guardian

The deck on which she stood was fully twenty feet above him, and she was still further separated from him by some thirty feet of the fore hatch, but he noted that her eyes were of the Parma violet tint so frequently met with in the heroines of fiction, yet all too seldom seen in real life.

From Project Gutenberg

"Wild Crab Apple," "Jockey Club," "Parma Violet," "Heliotrope," I read on the dainty labels, lifting out the ground-glass corks and smelling the lingering fragrance which yet attached to each empty vial.

From Project Gutenberg

I was told last winter at San Remo, that the scent of the Parma violet can be distilled only by the oil of the flower being passed through a layer of pork fat; and since that revelation violet essence has lost much of the charm it possessed for me: the thought of the suet counterbalanced the reality of the perfume.

From Project Gutenberg