Pretty are Colors Called

[Rores28]

I, and I suspect many populating these boards, love the aesthetic appeal of words, but I find some of the most beautiful words to be those that denote colors. I wanted to share a few of my favorite words for colors and maybe get other people's input on some more obscure color vocabulary. I run into this in books all the time and am always having to look up what color they are talking about.

citreous - lemon yellow
vermilion - a reddish orange
azuline/azurine - blue
cinnabar - red crystalline mercuric sulfide pigment; deep red or scarlet colour
eburnean - of or like ivory; ivory-coloured
ibis - a pale apricot colour
lapis lazuli - gemlike blue

[irinmisfit92]

Wow thanks! They feel gorgeous. :) I've always needed to improve on my colour vocabulary. I'm very bad at establishing setting because I mainly focus on emotions in my stories.

[stlukesguild]

Azure
Almond
Bisque
Cornsilk
Ivory
Emerald
Honeydew
Burnt Sienna
Terra Cotta
Lavender
Mint
Rose
Crimson
Coral
Scarlet
Salmon
Raspberry
Rose Madder
Russet
Burnt Umber
Raw Umber
Sepia
Melon
Goldenrod
Terre verte
Cyan
Cerulean
Peacock
Slate
Steel Blue
Plum

A few more I come across frequently as a painter.

[Rores28]

Almond has always been a favorite. But there is something about plum that I'm digging too, there's an immediacy to it that I like. Bisque is interesting as well.

[dfloyd]

And when he died
This of him was said:
All his sins were scarlet,
But all his books were read.

[Panglossian]

A handful:

flammeous - flame-coloured
smaragdine - emerald green
coccineous - bright red
brunneous - dark brown
and
purplicious - the state of liking purple to an extreme amount or surrounding your world with purple objects.

[Maximilianus]

This is easily becoming a wonderful thread for nonnative speakers of English seeking to widen their color vocabulary.

[Maximilianus]

Two more:

olive: a grayish green color as that of an unripe olive.
ochre: a somewhat yellowish orange color.

[Paulclem]

cerise pronounced ser-ees

pinky

It's not my type of colour, but I remember it as one I'm not sure of the colour. (I just had to look it up)

[OrphanPip]

cerise pronounced ser-ees

pinky

It's not my type of colour, but I remember it as one I'm not sure of the colour. (I just had to look it up)

Easy to remember, Paul, it's French for cherry.

[iamnobody]

Aubergine-very dark purple

[prendrelemick]

Chartreuse, a colour and a drink.


"and eleven long-haired friends of Jesus in a charteruse micro bus."

[Panglossian]

mazarine - rich blue reddish-blue purplish colour
rufous - brownish-red
gamboge - reddish yellowy colour
watchet - pale blue
jessamy - yellow like a jasmine
purpure - heraldic purple
zinnober - chrome green
greige - greyish beige

[jajdude]

Wow, there at a good dozen or more words above I doubt I've ever seen before. It's strange that English with its huge number of words seems lacking in color words, or at least ones that people know and use. How many different blues (and greens, and...) are there? Yet, what do most people say other than dark or light or navy or maybe sky blue? I suppose some other languages have common words to describe a wider range of colors, but in English we seem underfunded in the bank of words for colors, ready at our disposal.

[Rores28]

I'm learning some awesome words! Thanks

amaranthine - immortal; undying; deep purple-red color

aurulent - pronounced (ore you lent) gold colored

albugineous - like the white of an eye or an egg; white-coloured, albuminous

atrous - jet black, sable

argent - silver

patina - a film of oxide formed on the surface of a metal, esp the green oxidation of bronze or copper

verdigris - a green or bluish patina formed on copper, brass, or bronze and consisting of a basic salt of copper containing both copper oxide and a copper salt

a green or blue crystalline substance obtained by the action of acetic acid on copper and used as a fungicide and pigment; basic copper acetate

[Rores28]

mazarine - rich blue reddish-blue purplish colour
rufous - brownish-red
gamboge - reddish yellowy colour
watchet - pale blue
jessamy - yellow like a jasmine
purpure - heraldic purple
zinnober - chrome green
greige - greyish beige

I must challenge your definition of zinnober :). After a little searching it seems that zinnober is a German rendering of cinnabar and actually refers to a red color

[Panglossian]

I must challenge your definition of zinnober :). After a little searching it seems that zinnober is a German rendering of cinnabar and actually refers to a red color

You could well be right. I got the word from here: http://phrontistery.info/colours.html which is an interesting website for all sorts of unusual words.

[Rores28]

This is easily becoming a wonderful thread for nonnative speakers of English seeking to widen their color vocabulary.

Excellent. As a word of warning though, many of these words are alien even to native english speakers and many sort of toe the line of actual indicators of colors, that is some a very very rarely used and some you have to go digging through multiple dictionaries in order to find.

Ocher
Olive
Saffron
Patina/Verdigris
Scarlet
Incarnadine
Crimson
Emerald
Aubergine
Argent
Cinnabar
Vermilion
Sable
Sepia
Rose

^ These are more in the uncommon but still recognizable domain



azuline
carnelian
albugineous

^ These are getting more obscure, just as a point of reference

[Rores28]

You could well be right. I got the word from here: http://phrontistery.info/colours.html which is an interesting website for all sorts of unusual words.

Yes I've been using this site as well! Though the author of that page has more than a few dubious definitions :)

[jajdude]

Excellent. As a word of warning though, many of these words are alien even to native english speakers and many sort of toe the line of actual indicators of colors, that is some a very very rarely used and some you have to go digging through multiple dictionaries in order to find.

Ocher
Olive
Saffron
Patina/Verdigris
Scarlet
Incarnadine
Crimson
Emerald
Aubergine
Argent
Cinnabar
Vermilion
Sable
Sepia
Rose

^ These are more in the uncommon but still recognizable domain



azuline
carnelian
albugineous

^ These are getting more obscure, just as a point of reference

Good point. One I was getting at one page one. Most English speakers don't know that many words for colors, or use them infrequently. I mean people might look at you strange if you said something like, I don't know, "She wore a scarlet coat." Maybe a painter or fashion designer would use more color words.

Patina, incarnadine and cinnabar are even recognizable to most people as colors?

We all know what green is. I wonder how many shades we see. I guess we see thousands of shades/colors we have no real accurate words for.

[Panglossian]

I think my favourite colour word is viridian - from the Latin viridis meaning "green". Wholesome word, not too rare. Useful for describing woodlands and forests maybe -
http://paintbasket.com/studios/files/2010/07/forest9.jpg

[Paulclem]

Easy to remember, Paul, it's French for cherry.

Excellent. Something else I've learned today.

[Rores28]

We all know what green is. I wonder how many shades we see. I guess we see thousands of shades/colors we have no real accurate words for.

As much as our world makes our words our words make our world. By giving local habitation and name to these perceptions we solidify them in a way our perception alone cannot. The more you say the more you see.

I've run out of pith for now

[Rores28]

I think my favourite colour word is viridian - from the Latin viridis meaning "green". Wholesome word, not too rare. Useful for describing woodlands and forests maybe -
http://paintbasket.com/studios/files/2010/07/forest9.jpg

Yes a great word! This appears on many Magic the Gathering cards... not that I've ever played that....:leaving:

[Rores28]

Gules - the tincture red
Cinereous - ashen gray; consisting of or resembling ashes
Cesious - bluish-grey, Botany: having a waxy bluish gray covering
Amber - golden yellow (not uncommon but a favorite)

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Digging through some of my water colors I see:
Raw Umber
Rose doree
Cobalt Green
Sepia
Terre Verte
Raw Umber
Cadmium Yellow Pale
Prussian Blue

.