Puce eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #19-1518 TPX—Puce. Puce Puce is a dark red or purple brown color, a brownish purple or a "dark reddish brown." "Puce" is the French word for "flea". The color is said to be the color of bloodstains on linen or bedsheets, even after being laundered, from a flea's droppings, or after a flea has been crushed. The "Oxford English Dictionary" ("OED") dates the first English use of "puce" as a color to 1778. The name comes from the French word "puce", or flea, which comes from the Latin words for flea, "pulicem" or "pulex". According
The Flea (poem) The poem evokes the aphorism "carpe diem", which is Latin for "seize the day". Donne encourages the lady to focus on the present day and time versus saving herself for the afterlife. Donne is able to hint at the erotic without explicitly referring to sex, using images such as the flea that "pamper'd swells" with the blood of the lady (line 8). This evokes the idea of an erection. The speaker complains that "This is more than we would do!" (line 9) The speaker claims it would be "sacrilege" to kill the flea. He holds the flea up in the