Colour Terms

[Caliburn24]

Man here. And I almost exclusively use the main colors, sometimes with a light or dark prefix, when speaking.

The only exceptions are blue and green. Possibly because blue is so common, and green was so in use during my Army days. I will refer to things as midnight blue, or olive drab etc. once in awhile.

 

[Trekker4747]

I had a look at this pic I found on the net

which sort of sums up mine and sons' descriptions of colours and I was wondering what sort of colour terms people here use themselves

Do you use such words at

Burgundy
Maroon
Scarlet
Teal
Aqua
Navy
Mauve
Violet etc

or are you more likely to just describe things in more general terms such as red, blue, purple etc

I'd argue "red" needs to go one lower, and "blue" needs to go one higher in that chart. Anyway, unless there's some "need" to specify which shade of blue, red, etc. I'll just say that. Now what makes some thing "royal blue" as opposed to "blue" or whatever is harder to specify.

 

[DAYoung]

I'd argue "red" needs to go one lower...

Agreed. I wouldn't hesitate in calling that 'red'. At first glance, nothing about it says 'purple' to me.

 

[lurok]

One word: Pantone.

I also remember being fascinated by burnt sienna in my first art kit.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Do you use such words at

Burgundy
Maroon
Scarlet
Teal
Aqua
Navy
Mauve
Violet etc

or are you more likely to just describe things in more general terms such as red, blue, purple etc

I would only get that specific with colors if it was something that required it, like house paint, art supplies, furniture coverings, car interior/exterior colors, etc. Otherwise, I just stick to the basics.

This conversation reminded me of this scene from Parks and Recreation:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT5Gpp4W1cA[/yt]

 

[scotpens]

I'd argue "red" needs to go one lower, and "blue" needs to go one higher in that chart.

Those little dots don’t really give much color information anyway. Besides, colors may look a bit different on different computer monitors, unless your monitor is precisely calibrated.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I'd argue "red" needs to go one lower, and "blue" needs to go one higher in that chart.

Those little dots don’t really give much color information anyway. Besides, colors may look a bit different on different computer monitors, unless your monitor is precisely calibrated.

I've never seen maroon described as anything other than a shade of red.

 

[The Dominion]

For some reason I always think of maroon as a teal blue. I think it's associating the word maroon with shipwrecks and ocean, but I just can't think of it as a red.

 

[trekkiedane]

I'm such a guy.

But salmon is an orangy-pink and is different from just pink. I could say the same sort of thing for the other colours you mentioned.

Now, that depends on whether it is 'wild' salmon or one that has had artificial colour added to the food...

One word: Pantone.

I also remember being fascinated by burnt sienna in my first art kit.

Umbra did that for me

/.../ it strikes me that some of this is cultural, i.e. about what men and women learn to notice and talk about.

Bingo!

INCLUDING black and white (!) there exists only ten colours, These are their names and correlating numeral values:

Source.


I'm such a geek.

 

[thestrangequark]

Men clearly have the most efficient system going on there

Not if you're a painter. Or a writer.

I definitely use more specific color terms, and feel lucky that my native language has so many creative color terms (the number of color terms varies from language to language with some having only two: dark and light).

 

[trekkiedane]

I definitely use more specific color terms, and feel lucky that my native language has so many creative color terms (the number of color terms varies from language to language with some having only two: dark and light).

But how large a percentage of your fellow natives actually understand all these specific colour terms? -are you able to use any of them in a sentence and be understood by all?

 

[thestrangequark]

I definitely use more specific color terms, and feel lucky that my native language has so many creative color terms (the number of color terms varies from language to language with some having only two: dark and light).

But how large a percentage of your fellow natives actually understand all these specific colour terms? -are you able to use any of them in a sentence and be understood by all?

In most cases, yes. Though some have more of a vague understanding than others. I think the average native English speaker would have a fairly good idea (though sometimes varying from other individuals) of where on the color spectrum terms like, umber, puce, obsidian, maroon, etc belong, even if they're rarely used outside of art supplies stores and lame fashion catalogues. Then there's the fact that a lot of these colors are named after things we see; you know aquamarine is going to fall in the blue/green spectrum just by the name, and the same goes for salmon, coral, aubergine, chocolate, cream, sage and many more. Add to that that a lot of the modifying adjectives often are said with a more general color term following like: Prussian blue, cerulean blue, sea foam green. Naturally, vocabulary varies from individual to individual, but I think most people have at least some idea of the color being described.

 

[trekkiedane]

I've always found it funny just how many English words there are to describe what we here just call brown - and I've always wondered if that is due to the infamous English cuisine...

Outside catalogues, the colour-names used in Danish are pretty much like the guy-scale in the OP, sometimes you might throw in a 'light-' or 'dark-' though.
And of course descriptives like egg-shell, snow, sand are used as well -but mostly in conversations between women. (!)

I must confess that I've had some great, if rather strange, encounters that I wouldn't have had had I understood all the English names for colours though; hanky-code.



BTW:
Maraschino is a clear liquor! -why is it also the name of a RED hue?

 

[thestrangequark]

Because of maraschino cherries.

 

[trekkiedane]

Why not call it cherry then -same colour when you add Maraschino to them!

 

[MacLeod]

In general terms I'll use red/blue etc.. with maybe a preface of bright/dark/light etc.. i.e. Bright Red.

I will occasioanly use terms like Navy Blue, Teal, Maroon, But once it starts going into a name for a lighter shade of say Teal, nope it's Teal

 

[Trekker4747]

Why not call it cherry then -same colour when you add Maraschino to them!

Maraschino cherries have a bright, candy-colored red to them where as "regular" cherries are darker. Many of the color terms on the above chart, to me, read like the names of color swatches you'd get at Home Depot and not -in my mind- the name of "real colors."

I'd never call a color red as "Maraschino" and I'd consider "cherry red" to be, well, a sort of deep-red color like non-candied cherries are. (The type you'd buy in the produce bin and not in a jar.)

I would, mostly, agree men are less likely to divide their colors up into specific names and women do -probably because women tend to be a bit more visual. Not to say that men can't tell the difference between two types of red just that in most cases there's little need to make such a distinction.

Unless you're talking about cars. When you're talking about cars all bets are off and different colors have different names and there are distinct differences between a candy-apple red Mustang and a fire-red Camaro.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Why not call it cherry then -same colour when you add Maraschino to them!

Food color sometimes has no logic. Why do you think they call blueberries that name? They're purple...

in fact, why is there no blue food? Think about it.

 

[trekkiedane]

Why not call it cherry then -same colour when you add Maraschino to them!

Food color sometimes has no logic. Why do you think they call blueberries that name? They're purple...

in fact, why is there no blue food? Think about it.

Aaaargh - that's not helping any!!!
_

All this talk (quoting) about Maraschino cherries actually put me in the mood for a drink

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Why not call it cherry then -same colour when you add Maraschino to them!

Food color sometimes has no logic. Why do you think they call blueberries that name? They're purple...

in fact, why is there no blue food? Think about it.

Well, there's blue corn and blue potatoes and all their derivatives, but they look more purple to me, too.