#color terms

[dedalvs]

New Art of Language Invention video on color terms!

[lingthusiasm]

Lingthusiasm Episode 114: Begonia, average coral, and sea pink - Defining colour terms with Kory Stamper

begonia: a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral (see ‘coral’ 3B), bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger than sweet William, called also ‘gaiety’.

In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about trying to pin down definitions for colour terms with Kory Stamper, author of the new book TRUE COLOR! Kory is a lexicographer and was Associate Editor at Merriam-Webster for almost two decades. Her first book was Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, which we also loved, and now Kory is back with the fruits of her dive into the mid-20th century quest to standardize colour terms, taking us from dying fabrics to painting cars to assessing grades of maple syrup.

Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.

Announcements:

In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about childlore! We talk about our favourite bits of childlore from our own childhoods, such as skipping/clapping rhymes, counting-off rhymes, and fortune-telling. We also talk about tracking down the sources for "All Right, Vegemite!", a compilation of Australian children's chants and rhymes from Lauren's childhood, selectively choosing to pass on less racist and sexist versions of the rhymes, the relationship between childlore and memes, as well as research from folklorists and anthropologists on childlore around the world.

Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 100+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds.

Here are the links mentioned in the episode:

'True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color–from Azure to Zinc Pink' by Kory Stamper

Kory Stamper's website

Kory Stamper on Bluesky

Lingthusiasm episode 'People who make dictionaries: Review of WORD BY WORD by Kory Stamper'

You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.

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Lingthusiasm is on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tumblr. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com

Gretchen is on Bluesky as @gretchenmcculloch.com, on instagram @gretchen.mcculloch and blogs at All Things Linguistic.

Lauren is on Bluesky as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk, and our technical editor is Leah Velleman. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles. This episode of Lingthusiasm is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA).

[rjavenuru]

for a project...

Turquoise is...

...a type of green.

...a type of blue.

Neither.

Both.

Voting ended onAug 13, 2025

feel free to comment if you have clarifications and please reblog...

[linguisticalities]

How a Remote Amazonian Culture Saw 'Blue' And 'Green' in a Whole New Light

A new study on language learning has revealed the emergence of specific words to distinguish 'blue' from 'green' was a consequence of learning a second language.

[linguisten]

Topic day #256: Colo(u)r terms VIII

[wouldvebeenking]

Using Numbers, Colors, & Animals to Make Navajo Sentences

Navajo color terms are verbs. They will conjugate like verbs, and are not like adjectives as they are in English. 

Note that most color terms will begin with the thematic prefix łi-, and in the conjugation patter below the verbs are in the imperfective form. 

Verb stem + singular person:

Łinishchííʼ - I am red/reddish. 

Łiníchííʼ - You are red/reddish.

Łichííʼ - S/he/it is red/reddish. 

Jilchííʼ - One is red/reddish. 

Verb stem + Dual person:

Łiniichííʼ - We (2) are red/reddish.

Łinohchííʼ - You (2) are red/reddish.

Łichííʼ - S/he/it (2) are red/reddish.

Jilchííʼ - Those ones (2) are red/reddish.

Verb stem + Plural person:

Daałiniichííʼ - We all (3+) are red/reddish.

Daałinohchííʼ - You all (3+ are red/reddish.

Daalchííʼ - They all (3+) are red/reddish.

Dajilchííʼ - All of those ones (3+) are red/reddish.

Color terms in Navajo, along with other verbs that indicate size, shape, weight, and texture are known as neuter verbs. Other neuter verbs are: 

dichʼíízh - 'rough'

ditłééʼ - 'moist'

ditłʼo - 'hairy'

disho - 'fuzzy'

nitłʼiz - 'hard'

niteel - 'wide', 

nidaaz - 'heavy'

nilį́ - 's/he is'

nahalin - 'it resembles'

nizhóní - 'it is pretty'

átʼé - 'it is'

hólǫ́ - 'it exists'

yáʼátʼééh - 'it is good'

[maireyart]

One of the things that suprised me while studying English was exactly this: the number of color categories. 

Especially blue. How can blue stand for both dark blue and baby blue&cyan-ish color?   In Japanese, too. 青い (aoi): dark blue, light blue and sometimes even green. What. xD In Russian, for all things light blue (sky blue, baby blue, even cyan) there's the basic term голубой (goluboi), for the rich blue and dark blue color the word is синий (siniy), and both are on the rainbow 'color list.' Whereas it's blue and INDIGO in English? But isn't indigo too dark and low-saturated to appear in the rainbow, wondered me. :DDD Another thing that surprised me is the frequency of the word 'purple' in English :D There's an equivalent in Russian - пурпурный (purpurniy), but we use it soooooooo rarely! It's not a basic word, it's more like a specific color term in some contexts. It's mentioned in the video at 0:27, but I don't think it should be listed there. Most people would call that color in the video either фиолетовый (fioletoviy) or сиреневый (sireneviy). Yes, most things you'd call purple we'd call fioletoviy (violet) or maybe dark pink in some cases. Fioletoviy is the most basic and frequent umbrella  term for this color range.

[jrallomssconlangingblog]

Color Terms

Bagov has four core color terms:

obin [obɛn]: white; ultimately derived from the word for “sky”

goll [koɬ]: yellow ~ green; derived from the word for “plants” or “flora” this word covers the yellow-green range of color found in living, growing things

das [tɑs]: red ~ brown; from the word for “rock” or “stone”, this color covers mostly red, with richer browns, orange, and sandy tan colors as well

noghad [noɣət]: black ~ blue; from the word for “earth” this term includes dark blues, purples, and black