lily-white

English

Etymology

From Middle English liliwhite, lilye-white, lilye-whyt, equivalent to lily +‎ white.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

lily-white (comparative more lily-white, superlative most lily-white)

1. A shade of the color white.
2. Pure, unblemished, immaculate.

   Not a pimple nor freckle marred her lily-white skin

   • (Can we date this quote?), “Green Grow the Rushes, O”:

     Four for the Gospel makers, / Three, three, the rivals, / Two, two, the lily-white boys, Clothed all in green, O

3. Innocent, having a reputation beyond reproach.
4. (slang, sometimes derogatory) Of the Caucasian race; white.
   • 2023 March 7, Steve Rose, quoting China Miéville, “The romcom effect: will a new movie gentrify Peckham as Richard Curtis gentrified Notting Hill?”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The film was shot on location in Notting Hill, but observers noticed how its streets were suspiciously free of black people, and instead “wholly populated with mindless, twittering, wittering, lily-white rich”, as writer China Miéville put it.

Translations

a shade of the color white

• Bulgarian: белоснежен (belosnežen)
• Finnish: liljanvalkoinen
• Hungarian: liliomfehér (hu)

pure, unblemished, immaculate

• German: blütenweiß (de)