indigo

Meanings

Noun

• A purplish-blue colour
• An indigo-colored dye obtained from certain plants (the indigo plant or woad), or a similar synthetic dye.
• An indigo plant, such as from species in genera Indigofera, Amorpha (false indigo), Baptisia (wild indigo), and Psorothamnus (genus) and Dalea (indigo bush).

Adjective

• having a deep purplish-blue colour

Origin

• 16th century (as indico, modern spelling from the 17th century), Spanish índigo, Portuguese endego (modern índigo), or Dutch (via Portuguese) indigo, all from Latin indicum, from Ancient Greek Ἰνδικὸν, from Ἰνδία.