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osprey_archerCeladon and chartreuse don’t sound anything like greens. Celadon ought to be some sort of sunset color—something golden, or possibly a dark magenta, but definitely, definitely, definitely not pale green. And chartreuse is a type of fuchsia. Never mind the dictionary thinks it’s the bright green they use for light rain on the weather channel.
On a slightly different branch of the word-geekery tree, fuchsia is named after the fellow who discovered a way to synthesize a dye in that color in the 1850s. The Victorians are really a great source of color names—they came up with gems like ash of roses and cerise.
Although I have to say, they attached cerise to entirely the wrong color. It’s an ugly light purply pink, but it ought to be bright red—it’s from the French word for cherry, after all.
The English word for cherry, incidentally, was originally the Norman cherise, which became cherries, and then people assumed that was a plural form and invented the singular cherry. They did the same thing to the pea, which was originally pease for the singular.
Yes, I’m in a linguistics class this term. The class is actually quite terrible, but the book is interesting so I read it and ignore the teacher.
Also, if you’re interested in word type things, here is an awesome site. It’s like a vocabulary test that donates rice to the UN world food program whenever you get a question right. And the words are actually difficult—usually I hate these things because I know all the words and that gets so boring—but I here I’m learning new ones. My current favorite is altazimuth, which means telescope.
On a slightly different branch of the word-geekery tree, fuchsia is named after the fellow who discovered a way to synthesize a dye in that color in the 1850s. The Victorians are really a great source of color names—they came up with gems like ash of roses and cerise.
Although I have to say, they attached cerise to entirely the wrong color. It’s an ugly light purply pink, but it ought to be bright red—it’s from the French word for cherry, after all.
The English word for cherry, incidentally, was originally the Norman cherise, which became cherries, and then people assumed that was a plural form and invented the singular cherry. They did the same thing to the pea, which was originally pease for the singular.
Yes, I’m in a linguistics class this term. The class is actually quite terrible, but the book is interesting so I read it and ignore the teacher.
Also, if you’re interested in word type things, here is an awesome site. It’s like a vocabulary test that donates rice to the UN world food program whenever you get a question right. And the words are actually difficult—usually I hate these things because I know all the words and that gets so boring—but I here I’m learning new ones. My current favorite is altazimuth, which means telescope.
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Date: 2008-04-25 06:31 am (UTC)But, more importantly, one of the colors in my sister's wedding is peridot. I went into David'd Bridal asking for a bluish...um..."pery-dot?" sash. Yeah. Apparently it's "peri-doe" and it's green. I don't believe it's a color, frankly. I think it's a marketing ploy.
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Date: 2008-04-28 06:59 pm (UTC)And God, colors as marketing ploys. I remember looking through paint chips when my mother decided to repaint something or other. There was a beige called "Delta Moon."
First: the moon is beige? Second: does the delta moon look somehow different from, say, a lake or a river moon?
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Date: 2008-04-28 07:30 pm (UTC)Paint chips are ridiculous! I mean, some of them make sense (ex: I painted my living room "leatherbound" and it really is the exacty same color as an old Bible), but some are just ridiculous (do you know how hard it is to match Rustoleum's "Almond" to colors like "lion," "seaside sand," and "cozy cottage."
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Date: 2008-04-29 06:23 pm (UTC)