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 to the "Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology",
Flea market puces" (flea market). The traditional and most-publicized story is in the article "What Is a Flea Market?" by Albert LaFarge in the 1998 winter edition of "Today's Flea Market" magazine: "There is a general agreement that the term 'Flea Market' is a literal translation of the French "marché aux puces", an outdoor bazaar in Paris, France, named after those pesky little parasites of the order "Siphonaptera" (or "wingless bloodsucker") that infested the upholstery of old furniture brought out for sale." The second story appeared in the book "Flea Markets", published in Europe by Chartwell Books, has in its introduction: As