Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Violet \Vi"o*let\, a. [Cf. F. violet. See {Violet}, n.]
   Dark blue, inclining to red; bluish purple; having a color
   produced by red and blue combined.

   {Violet shell} (Zo["o]l.), any species of Ianthina; -- called
      also {violet snail}. See {Ianthina}.

   {Violet wood}, a name given to several kinds of hard purplish
      or reddish woods, as king wood, myall wood, and the wood
      of the {Andira violacea}, a tree of Guiana.

Ianthina \I*an"thi*na\, n.; pl. L. {Ianthin[ae]}, E.
   {Ianthinas}. [NL., fr. L. ianthinus violet-blue, Gr. ?; ?
   violet + ? flower.] (Zo["o]l.)
   Any gastropod of the genus {Ianthina}, of which various
   species are found living in mid ocean; -- called also {purple
   shell}, and {violet snail}. [Written also {janthina}.]

   Note: It floats at the surface by means of a raft, which it
         constructs by forming and uniting together air bubbles
         of hardened mucus. The Tyrian purple of the ancients
         was obtained in part from mollusks of this genus.