Colour: Etymology

R

Rainbowlight

Senior Member
Spanish
Hello everyone,

I work in a creative industry and I'm very interested in everything that has to do with colour.

Some months ago, it striked to me that there should be an inner logic to the word. What could be described as the very essence of color and why is it called like that? Words like "layering" and "covering" came immediately to my mind, among many others - "coating", "plating", even "perfecting" (in the sense of "finishing" or "giving the final touch"). Similarly, I have always wondered whether the abundance of words like "rank", "renk" and similar ones to name colour had anything to do with the manner in which colours seem to be presented in every shop that sells it - neat little rows and columns where shades are presented in an logical, orderly fashion.

By the way, when I found out that the Greek word "κόλλα" means "glue" (an adhesive substance), a lot of things started to make sense. Greek "κόλλα" may be the origin of French "colle" (glue) and "coller" (to stick, to adhere), Spanish "cola" (glue), Italian "colla" and verb "incollare". The sequence C-L-R seems to be there. Could it be that colour was first conceptualised as a noun because it was viewed as a substance that is applied in the final stage of an art process?

Do any of you have any ideas about the etymology of the word "colour" in your language? Does it seem to be related to a verb or a noun?

I would love to read your answers about this subject.
 
    • Rainbowlight said:
    Words like "layering" and "covering" came immediately to my mind
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    Yes, through Latin, color is also cognate with occult, that is to say "hidden under a layer of mystery".

    Rainbowlight said:
    Greek "κόλλα" may be the origin of French "colle" (glue) and "coller" (to stick, to adhere)
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    Yes it is, with the same meaning, but while κόλλα comes from PIE kel (glue), Latin color comes from PIE kal (to cover).
     
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    Rainbowlight said:
    Do any of you have any ideas about the etymology of the word "colour" in your language?
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    Slavic languages tend to have different words for "color" (sometimes loaned). In Russian, however, the etymology is quite transparent: цвет (tsvet) "color" means also "(small) flowers" (collective), "bloom" (in stable expressions); cf. цветок (tsvetók) "flower", цвести (tsvestí) "to flower", "to bloom".
     
    In Greek colour is «χρώμα» [ˈxɾo̞ma] (neut.) < Classical 3rd declension neuter noun «χρῶμα» /ˈkʰrɔ̂ːmɐ/ (nom. sing.), «χρώματος» /ˈkʰrɔːmɐtos/ (gen. sing.). Its etymology is interesting and complex:

    -It's the lengthened form of the feminine noun «χρόᾱ» /ˈkʰroɐː/ --> surface of the body, skin, skin-colour, (later) colour in general; it produced the lengthened 3rd declension «χρώς» /ˈkʰrɔːs/ (fem. nom. sing.), «χροός» /kʰroˈos/ (fem. gen. sing.) --> skin-colour, flesh which is a s-stem formation of PIE *kʰrou̯- with hyphaeresis (i.e. deletion of one of two vowels in a row) in order to form the gen. *krohos. The meaning of «χρώς» as skin, flesh has been retained in MoGr in the fixed expression «εν χρω» (MoGr pron. [e̞nˈxɾo̞]) < Classical fixed expression «ἐν χρῷ» /enˈkʰrɔ̂ːi̯/ --> close to the skin.

    -It's connected to the epic verb «χραύω» /ˈkʰrɐu̯ɔː/ --> to wound slightly, scratch < PIE *gʰreh₂u̯-/*gʰrei̯(H)- to anoint, plaster cognate with the verb «χρίω» /ˈkʰriːɔː/ --> to spread, anoint, plaster (> Χριστός, /kʰrisˈtos/ (masc.) --> the anointed one). Outside of Greek, the Proto-Germanic *grīmô is considered an outer-Greek cognate.

    So, in Greek the word for colour is related to the skin > skin-colour > colour (plus, with further development, anointing, wounding, scratching etc.).
     
    Swedish have both the word kulör, borrowed from French/Latin (but not often used), and the word färg, from Old Germanic, compare with the German word farbe.
     
    Awwal12 said:
    Slavic languages tend to have different words for "color" (sometimes loaned). In Russian, however, the etymology is quite transparent: цвет (tsvet) "color" means also "(small) flowers" (collective), "bloom" (in stable expressions); cf. цветок (tsvetók) "flower", цвести (tsvestí) "to flower", "to bloom".
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    Thank you so much for your help. I fail to understand the connection between the idea of "colour" and a "flower", other than the obvious fact that some flowers seem to have particularly bright, gaudy colours.
     
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    apmoy70 said:
    In Greek colour is «χρώμα» [ˈxɾo̞ma] (neut.) < Classical 3rd declension neuter noun «χρῶμα» /ˈkʰrɔ̂ːmɐ/ (nom. sing.), «χρώματος» /ˈkʰrɔːmɐtos/ (gen. sing.). Its etymology is interesting and complex:

    -It's the lengthened form of the feminine noun «χρόᾱ» /ˈkʰroɐː/ --> surface of the body, skin, skin-colour, (later) colour in general; it produced the lengthened 3rd declension «χρώς» /ˈkʰrɔːs/ (fem. nom. sing.), «χροός» /kʰroˈos/ (fem. gen. sing.) --> skin-colour, flesh which is a s-stem formation of PIE *kʰrou̯- with hyphaeresis (i.e. deletion of one of two vowels in a row) in order to form the gen. *krohos. The meaning of «χρώς» as skin, flesh has been retained in MoGr in the fixed expression «εν χρω» (MoGr pron. [e̞nˈxɾo̞]) < Classical fixed expression «ἐν χρῷ» /enˈkʰrɔ̂ːi̯/ --> close to the skin.

    -It's connected to the epic verb «χραύω» /ˈkʰrɐu̯ɔː/ --> to wound slightly, scratch < PIE *gʰreh₂u̯-/*gʰrei̯(H)- to anoint, plaster cognate with the verb «χρίω» /ˈkʰriːɔː/ --> to spread, anoint, plaster (> Χριστός, /kʰrisˈtos/ (masc.) --> the anointed one). Outside of Greek, the Proto-Germanic *grīmô is considered an outer-Greek cognate.

    So, in Greek the word for colour is related to the skin > skin-colour > colour (plus, with further development, anointing, wounding, scratching etc.).
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    Thanks for your interesting, detailed explanation. I have read elsewhere that Latin color and colorare could be related to the Latin verb celare, which means to cover or conceal.

    I must say that I find it remarkable that one of the antonyms of colour is (among several other words) the word clear. That is, diaphanous, transparent... In other words, colourless.
     
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    AutumnOwl said:
    Swedish have both the word kulör, borrowed from French/Latin (but not often used), and the word färg, from Old Germanic, compare with the German word farbe.
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    Thanks for your answer. I am slightly familiar with words like "färg", German "farbe", even Czech "barva". Is the word färg similar to other words in Swedish? Do you happen to know if it has a known etymology?
     
    Celtic Corner

    Modern Welsh:     lliw

    Old Cornish: liu
    Middle Cornish: lyw

    Old Breton: liou
    Modern Breton: liv

    Irish: lí

    'Celtic' *lī-wo- from I-E root *(s)lī- 'glasaidd' in Mod. Welsh. (i.e. greyish/greenish/bluish). See also Latin, līuor 'a blackish-blue colour'.

    GPC: 'lliw'1: Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru
     
    Welsh_Sion said:
    Mine was a cut and paste job from GPC. I know very little 'Celtic' outside my own mother tongue, @Stoggler. And as for Manx ... :)
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    Apparently the Manx is daah, so same root.

    Unfortunately the only etymological source for Celtic languages I can find is Wiktionary, and there’s no info on that particular word other than saying it’s from Old Irish. Anyone have any better Celtic etymological sources…?
     
    I guess [ʋ] (Middle Low German farwe/farwe) > [ɣ] (Old Swedish fargha/færgha) > [j] (Modern Swedish färg).
    • [ɣ]>[w] is not too infrequent a shift (e.g. Old English boga > Middle English bowe; cf. German Bogen). Why not this similar but opposite shift?
    • The palatalisation [ɣ]>[j] after r is regular from Old Swedish to Modern Swedish.
    But this is just my guess. On the other hand, the Middle Low German and Old Swedish forms I quoted are not my guesses. They can be found in etymological dictionaries.
     
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    In Slovenian, colour is barva which is borrowed from Middle High German varwe. Colloquially, we also say farba which is obviously also a German loan but more modern.
     
    berndf said:
    PS: I found in a Swedish etymological dictionary variants like naghel instead of navel in Old Swedish. That supports my surmise [ʋ] > [ɣ].
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    Are you talking about (finger) nails (nagel in Swedish) or the navel (umbilicus) (navel in Swedish)?
     
    Screenshot_20230727_001422.jpg

    Screenshot_20230727-001328_Chrome.jpg
     
    I wonder if the /gh/ in some of the first words could be a variant of /fv/, for the /v/ sound, rather than the /j/ sound in the two last words? The /g/ in the words färg and korg is pronounced as a /j/. Until the spelling reform of 1906 the /v/ sound in Swedish could be spelt as /f/, /fv/ or /hv/.
     
    To my knowledge, <gh> was /ɣ/ in Old Swedish, as in þrætighi [θrætiɣi] (thirty).
     
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