This is the second post in a series on English Color Etymologies. Today we are looking at the colors that come from the names of food and drinks, fruits and vegetables, along with other miscellaneous names.
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!
FOOD AND DRINKS
Photos by roboppy & waynemahThings we eat, from wine to liver, have become associated with color.
 The fatty component of unhomogenized milk. |
 Coffee with milk (from the French). |
 A small cake (from “biscuit”). |
 A small cake (from the French “twice-cooked”). |
 A beverage made from the powder of cacao seeds. |
 The beverage made from roasting and grinding the seeds of the coffee plant. |
 Burnt sugar. |
 The vertebrate organ, considered edible. |
 A dry, red wine made in France’s Bordeaux region. |
 A beverage made from fermented grape juice. |
 Fermented, roasted, shelled, and ground seeds from the cacao plant. |
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Photos by nidriel & targophotoMore specific than foods alone, many fruits and vegetables names have also become the name of the color of their skin.
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 A cherry (from the French). |
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 Corn. |
 Citrus fruit. |
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 A mulberry. |
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 Eggplant. |
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 From the French for pomegranate. |
MISCELLANEOUS
Photo by jamilsoniPeople, verbs, and everyday objects have also been the source for various color names.
 Those holding the rank of cardinal in the churches of Rome wore red robes. They lent the name of their position to both the color and the bird. |
 From the color of the doughlike cement used to fill holes in woodwork or as a finishing coat on plaster. |
 After the painter, Titian, who used the color frequently in his paintings. |
 From the verb “to tan”, which entered English directly from Latin and which means to convert hide into leather by beating. |
 Celadon is the name of a pale green glaze used for ceramics. There are multiple theories as to its origin: Celadon was the name of French author Honoré d’Urfé’s character in L’Astrée who wore pale green ribbons. Celadon may be a corruption of Saladin, the name of the Ayyubid Sultan who sent 40 pieces of the ceramic to the Sultan of Syria in 1171. Or, celadon may derive from the Sanskrit sila ‘green’ and dhara ‘stone.’ |
 A common Irish surname as well as a type of pool using 15 balls. |
 Named in honor of France’s Cardinal Mazarin, prime minister from 1643 to 1661. |
 Vapor made up of small particles of carbonaceous matter. |
 The color of the British naval uniform. |
 Two possible origins: 1) French marron, ‘chestnut.’ 2) French marron, a corruption of the Spanish cimarrón, referring to a fugitive slave. |
 Named after Sir Anthony van Dyke, a Flemish Baroque painter. |
 Typically refers to a yellowish brown, a color similar to that of the pelt of the animal. It is unclear how this became black for heraldry and mourning garments. |
Did I miss one? Add it!
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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…