The colour white is used in expressions ranging from "blanc parfait", infinite colour, and "corps blanc", white substance, to describe the colour of snow or a lily to the flash of light on an "arme blanche", a bladed weapon, a diamond, crystal … white hesitates between being an absence of colour or the sum of all colours in the spectrum, flash of light or pallor, opacity or transparency, and withdraws from or draws near to its etymological origin (blank : "brilliance").

By multiplying its symbolic associations, white is seen in turn as being an absolute, an ideal, light and matter, bodily cleanliness and purity of the soul, neutrality, peace, but also emptiness and silence, a space free from all possibilities. It witnesses an obsessive quest for whiteness still found in contemporary society.

Annie Mollard-Desfour is a linguist at the CNRS who has contributed in particular to the writing of the "Treasures of the French Language". She is now recognised as the French specialist of the contemporary lexique of colours following the publication of the first volumes of the dictionary dedicated to colours, Blue, Red, Pink and Black. She is Présidente of the Centre Français de la Couleur.

Le Blanc
Dictionary of Colours - contemporary words and expressions
Author: Annie Mollard-Desfour
Preface: Jean-Louis Etienne

Publication date : 28/02/2008

"Et "Blanc" sort. Blanc absolu. Blanc par-dessus toute blancheur. Blanc de l'avènement du blanc. Blanc sans compromis, par exclusion, par totale éradication du non-blanc. Blanc fou, exaspéré, criant de blancheur. Fanatique, furieux, cribleur de rétine. Blanc électrique, atroce, implacable, assassin. Blanc à rafales de blanc. Dieu du "blanc". (...)

Je sens que le blanc va longtemps garder pour moi quelque chose d'outrancier."

(H. Michaux, "Avec la mescaline", "Misérable miracle", 1956, L'Espace du dedans, 1966, p. 347).

"Le blanc est inaccessible, il se révèle, mais est hors d'atteinte. Blanc. Cette extrême ligne encore présente, courageuse, dans l'immense silence de cet infini secret blanc, banquise à foison et encore plus soleil de nuit, et de jours. Le blanc à la limite du silence dans un infime."

(O. Mérijon, "Réflexions sur les Whites", 2007).

Le Blanc is the fifth volume in Annie Mollard-Desfour's series of dictionaries devoted to words and expressions of color from the 20th century and the very contemporary period. After the fields of blue (Le Bleu), red (Le Rouge), pink (Le Rose) and black (Le Noir), he leads us, according to words and expressions, in this "color" to l 'apparent uniformity, with multiple meanings and associations, between absence or sum of all colors: ideal white, perhaps inaccessible, white direct access to light, to the essential and to the truth, white of emptiness and nothingness, source of anguish and terror. To grasp the elusive nature of white, to pierce its silence ... Such is the aim of this dictionary which lists words and expressions of white through the texts of the twentieth century and the twenty-first century beginning (from poetry to slang, novels and songs in press articles), defines its nuances, identifies its various uses, associations, connotations and figurative meanings.

White Spirits and les White are the titles given by their author, Olivier MERIJON, contemporary painter, to series of white canvases which, in a multitude of rhythms, paths, lines, breaks, reliefs, curves and obliques , capture, retain or return the light of white. (page 150) LE BLANC / DICIONNAIRES DES COULEURS / MOLLARD-DESFOUR / CNRS EDITONS 2008 / ISBN: 978-2-271-06636-7