The Color Of Language: English Color Etymologies

This is the first post in a series on English Color Etymologies. Today we are looking at the colors that come from the names of animals, insects, and flowers, trees and plants.

English is a colorful language. Since its birth among the tribes of Europe, English has built its color vocabulary with the wealth of words it has inherited from Anglo-Saxon, Norman French, Latin, and Greek. Collected here are 172 colors that standard dictionaries (I used the American Heritage and the Random House) classify as specific color nouns (these do not, of course, include the standard ten – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, grey, white – or any Crayola inventions). This treasure of colors is broken down by etymological origin: is the color the name of a flower, an animal, or even a historical person? Some colors appear twice (when I felt two origins were sufficiently different). Others appear only once though they could certainly fit into several categories.

Ever wonder how a color got its name? Refer to the following and enjoy your new grasp on color!

ANIMALS

Photo by fortphotoThe plumage, pelts, tusks, shells, and scales of various animals have all lent their names to colors.

Elephant tusk (made of the same material as all mammalian teeth).	Covering of a bird’s or reptile’s egg, made of calcium.
Soft leather, particularly from buffalo, elk, or oxen.	A game fish.
A large wading bird.	Rocklike structure formed of the calcareous skeletons of various, small sea creatures.
A small finch native to the Canary Islands (“the island of dogs”).	A small freshwater duck.
A young deer.	A European goat antelope.
A French mole (word now obsolete for reference to the animal).	A small, forest-dwelling, carnivorous mammal, related to the martens.
Italian word for the cuttlefish (and the ink it secretes).

INSECTS

Photo by markopVarious insects have been used for dyeing fabric over time and have thus become their own color.

From Latin verminculus, ‘a little worm,’ specifically the cochineal insects from which the red dye was obtained.	A red dye made from the pulverized body of the cochineal insect, Dactylopius coccus.
From Latin verminculus, ‘a little worm,’ specifically the cochineal insects from which the red dye was obtained.	From Sanskrit krimiga, ‘insect-produced’.
From the Arabic qirmiz, the insect genus Kermes. (See carmine for further etymology evolution.)	From the French puce, ‘flea.’

FLOWERS, TREES, AND PLANTS

Photo by markopBy far the largest category of color origins, plants provide some of the world’s most startling colors.

Rosa odorata.	Flowers of the Dianthus genus.
Flowers of the Geranium or Pelagonium genera.	Flowers of the Papaver genus, whose seeds are used for cooking, medicicine, and narcotics.
Linum usitatissimum, used for its oil and fibers.	Flowers of the Helianthus genus, bearing edible seeds.
Crocus sativus, used as a dye and as a cooking spice.	Taraxacum officinale, often used in salads and to make wine (considered a weed in North America).
Flowers of the Narcissus genus.	Plants of the Brassica genus, used to make a condiment.
Stalks of threshed grain.	Plants of the Reseda genus.
Plants of the Corylus genus, bearing edible seeds, hazelnuts.	Coniferous evergreen trees of the Picea genus.
Plants of the Vinca genus.	Plants of the Viola genus.
Hyacinthus orientalis.	Plants of the Fuchsia genus.
Flowers of the Petunia genus.	Plants of the Lavandula genus, whose flowers are used for aromatic purposes.
Flowers of the Syringa genus.	Flowers of the Heliotropium genus.
Calluna vulgaris.	Flowers of the Rosa genus.
Plants of the Crocus genus.	Plants of the Orchidaceae family.
Derived from the name of plants in the Malva genus, mallows.	Flowers of the Achimenes or Viola genera.
Dervied from the name of flowers of the Amaranthus genus, also an imaginary flower that never fades, ‘an amaranth.’	Trees of the Santalum genus, used for their oil and their wood.
An evergreen tree, Myristica fragrans, bearing seeds used as a spice.	An evergreen tree, Tectona grandis, used for its wood.
Trees of the Castanea genus, bearing edible nuts.	Trees of the Cinnamomum genus, bearing edible bark that is used as a spice.
Rubia tinctorum, whose root was used to make the dye alizarin.	Lawsonia inermis, whose leaves are used to make a dye.
Trees of the Swietenia genus, used for their wood.	A pigment made by boiling wood soot (commonly beechwood). Also spelled bistre.
Zingiber officinale, whose rootstalk is used as a spice.	Trees of the Diospyros, used for their hard wood (especially for piano keys).
Trees of the Diospyros, used for their hard wood (especially for piano keys).

Did I miss one? Add it!

Title by Laurence Shan

About the Guest Author, Jessica Alexander
Jessica Alexander is a writer, translator, and hopeless devotee of overstuffed dictionaries. For more titillating etymologies, check out dailycharacter. Or, if you just want to send her love letters…