Stories in the rainbow

Are oranges named after the color or vice versa? The etymology of hues

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How many colors do you think you could name –and identify– correctly? It may seem like kindergarten business, but beyond the primary colors and their combinations, the shades get more nuanced. Have you ever wondered how hues got their names? What did we call "orange" first, was it the color or the fruit? Let’s explore the history of how color names came to be!

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"Blue" comes from the Old French word bleu, which in turn has roots in the Germanic word blāw. Now, here's where it gets interesting. Originally, blāw meant "shining," referring to the shimmer of light.

It wasn't until later that it specifically described the color of the sea and that of the sky. Think about it: the shade that so many people pick as their favorite might have been called "shimmer".

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The grass is always unripe on the other side of the fence. Or that’s what they might have said in Old English. In the past, their term grēne meant something was immature or not-yet-ready, so it eventually was assigned to the color.

If you pay attention, you might see some shared roots in words like "grow," "grass," and "grain."

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Maybe you guessed it: "Yellow" comes from the Old English word geolu, which is related to words like "gold" and "yolk."

Interestingly, geolu was also used to describe shades of brown and even green! In time it settled into the bright, cheerful color we know and love today: that of sunlight.

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You probably know that purple used to be linked to royalty, power, and riches. The explanation is closely linked with its etymology.

"Purple" derives from the Latin purpura, which refers to a species of sea snail. In ancient times, thousands of snails would have to be milked or crushed to obtain dye of this rare hue, making purple fabrics extremely expensive.

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A color popularly associated with boredom and blandness –sorry, fans of beige! Its name comes from the French term "natural wool," referring to the undyed color of sheep's wool.

Of course, a similar color is "vanilla," which points at the color of the flowers that produce the tasty beans. And what do you know –that term is also associated with mildness.

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You wouldn’t expect such a bright and cheerful color to have originated in a war. But this hue got its name after the Battle of Magenta, fought in Italian territory in 1859.

It’s because this new aniline dye was discovered in France around the same time, and the Franco-Italian victory was honored by assigning it the bloody battle’s name.

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This beautiful blue-green hue gets its name from a bird! The common teal, a small duck with a distinctive colored stripe around its eyes, lent its name to this color.

It's a relatively recent addition to the color lexicon, only becoming popular in the mid-20th century.

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"Indigo" comes from the Latin word indicum, meaning "Indian," because this vibrant dye was originally imported from India to Europe.

Today, we use "indigo" to refer to one of the colors in the rainbow, nestled between blue and violet. In the Hindu religion, this precise hue represents the chakra of the third eye.

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This one's a bit of a late bloomer. Before the juicy orange fruit made its way to Europe from Asia, English speakers didn't really have a specific word for it. They'd call it geoluhread. Does that ring a bell? Exactly, it combines _geolu (_yellow) and read (red), its two neighboring colors.

But when the fruit arrived from Asia, with its Sanskrit term naranga (orange tree), a version of that new word was assigned to the vibrant color.

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The French had a word for a specific chestnut – a large, brown chestnut that grew on a specific type of tree. This term was marron. Marrons were often used to make a reddish-brown dye, which they named after the nuts.

It's not related to the verb "maroon," though. That one derives from the Spanish cimmaron, which meant "wild, untamed, unruly, fugitive."

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Think pink! This delicate color comes from the Dutch word pinksterbloem, which was a mouthful. The term was the name of a type of flower with jagged edges of this hue.

Before, the English terms for this color evoked pale skin: They used "flesh color" or "incarnation."

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The word "red" traces its roots back to the Old English word rēad. It's related to words in other languages like rood in Dutch and rot in German.

In turn, "scarlet" goes back to the Persian word saqerlât, a type of fine cloth. In the Middle Ages, scarlet dye was incredibly expensive, made from the dried bodies of a tiny insect called the kermes. That’s why it became associated with wealth, luxury, and even royalty.

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The color of mystery, elegance, and that little black dress everyone should have in their closet. "Black" comes from the Old English word blæc, which meant "dark" or "ink."

Some of the earliest archives of this word in writing uses blæc to refer to "that dark spot in the middle of the eye."

Dictionary spotlight

From "Truthiness" to "Bushlips": 10 words of the year through history

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Each year, dictionaries and linguistic societies worldwide select a "word of the year" to capture a part of the essence of global conversations, trends, or cultural shifts. Often serving as a snapshot of society’s biggest preoccupations or passions at that point in time, these words can be fun, poignant, and sometimes even controversial. Here are ten selected choices from past years, ranging from strange numeronyms like Y2K to whimsical verbs like "to be plutoed."

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Coined by comedian Stephen Colbert, "truthiness" describes things that feel true, even when they aren’t. The satirical concept highlights how dishonest media often appeals to emotion and "gut feelings" over rational thinking and actual facts.

The term became so popular that it won the American Dialect Society’s "Word of the Year" in 2005 and Merriam-Webster’s in 2006. Interestingly, some linguists noted that a similar word already existed in English literature, although with a meaning closer to "truthfulness" or "faithfulness."

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The supposed Y2K "millennium bug" caused widespread panic as the year 2000 approached, with predictions of technological catastrophes due to a theoretical software error related to the date change after 1999.

Selected by various language authorities, Y2K captured millennial anxieties. Fortunately, despite intense fears, the Y2K bug resulted in minimal actual disruption.

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After Pluto’s reclassification as a dwarf planet in 2006, the whimsical verb "to be plutoed" emerged, essentially meaning "to be demoted." The American Dialect Society selected it to humorously mark Pluto’s abrupt change in status.

As a unique instance where planetary reclassification and public discourse converged, the term became a metaphor for any reduction in rank. It also captured a bit of the public’s emotional response to Pluto’s unexpected downgrading.

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What’s worse than a dumpster full of trash? A dumpster full of trash on fire. A descriptor for something disastrously out of control, "dumpster fire" was the American Dialect Society’s choice for 2016.

Originally used in sports, the term "dumpster fire" quickly gained broader popularity that year, becoming a go-to phrase for chaotic situations—a usage that remains popular today.

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Originating from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s description of the Gulf War as "the mother of all battles," the term quickly became a widely used phrase to emphasize something as the ultimate or most significant of its kind. It was used for all sorts of exaggerated statements.

Technically an idiom, "mother of all –" demonstrates how easily language can adopt new meanings and ideas from almost any source, from global politics to scientific endeavors, leading to expressions that take on a life beyond their original context.

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Ever had your phone die on you right when you needed it most? You might have experienced a bit of "nomophobia." This curious term, coined in 2009 in the UK, is a shortened form of "no-mobile-phone-phobia."

As smartphone dependence has soared in recent years, the term has gained increasing prominence, reflecting a new anxiety of the digital era.

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The word "homer" (a baseball term for a home run) became a sensation after appearing in The New York Times' popular Wordle game. Frustrated players had their lucky streaks interrupted when they encountered the word, bringing it into the spotlight.

Worldwide searches for "homer" highlighted not only the influence a game can have on language but also the public's growing interest in exploring the vast depths of our shared vocabulary.

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As fashion shifted toward more sustainability-focused trends, the term "upcycling" became a buzzword, referring to the process of transforming waste into items of higher value. It is the opposite of downcycling, which is another part of the recycling process.

This intriguing concept encourages people to repurpose materials that would typically go to waste in both creative and useful ways.

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Selected by Collins Dictionary, "photobomb" describes the act of unexpectedly appearing in someone’s photo, often with humorous results.

As selfies and casual photography grew in popularity, photobombing became an art of surprise and comedy, evolving into a topic of conversation and even competition across social media.

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This term, chosen by the American Dialect Society, referred to President George H.W. Bush’s famous "Read my lips: No new taxes" pledge during his 1988 Republican nomination—a promise he later broke, frustrating many of his supporters.

"Bushlips" became popular as it encapsulated public disappointment in political promises and became shorthand for unkept pledges. The term is also a wordplay on a less polite expression that can refer to something untrue.