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I “light-red.” is abasiccolor speakers termEnglish say do because notnormally term, andinstead say instead, we might bright-sky-blue pink while course.of speakers can’t thedifference or see describe between blue andazure, way between blue andcyan).half T blue distinguish andazurethey (where azure isthesky-blue color such asI hese terms cover thansimply black distinction wider aslightly frica, How namingcolors? didwe andwhen start S B “ eminal research by B erlin andKayerlin that, theorized aslanguages evolve, acquire they A talian, Modern Greek, and R mericas, or A ll itmeansisthat,ll inEnglish, azure isnotabasiccolor nterestingly, some other E he first real color aname,to get anditappears to his includes English, which has11basiccolor A ustralasia, thefirst color that humans namein erlin andKayerlin in1969suggests cultures rigin of theHierarchy of On therigin his doesn’t meanthatEnglish ussian have 12color terms as W uropean languages hy isthat? urope, f a f A sia, “ winter 2015 ndo- y the I roto- f name your nglish for red. ld English red. for eudh also gave us also gave eudh ndian continent language language ndian continent hat means it’s an easy color easy color an hat means it’s Communicating color | Communicating nglish, reudh became reudh ld English, t also made it to Greece where where Greece it to t also made n O he word has changed very little over very has changed little over he word uropean (an ancient culture rooted in rooted culture (an ancient uropean anskrit (an I C) word reudh in reudh 4000 BC) word around at urope E ndo- s with communication between desks and desks between s with communication ver the millennia this word migrated, crossed the crossed migrated, the millennia this word ver A I roto- ead—your name remains as O name remains ead—your Out of the Wood Wood of the Out eid, or R or eid, astern E sia and Eastern A roto-Germanic, where it became rod or rauthaz, which is one is one which rauthaz, or it became rod where roto-Germanic, eed, R eed, nglish version grene or greene), and groen in Dutch. B in Dutch. and groen greene), or grene ld English version he next color we give a name to is the green/yellow area. Not too too Not area. is the green/yellow a name to give we color he next uropean words ghre and gro. T ghre and gro. words uropean erhaps one of your ancestors had red hair?). R hair?). had red erhaps of one ancestors your f red is the first color to be named by all cultures, then where do then where by all cultures, to be named f color is the first red when a language is developing to agree on. You can imagine two You agree on. to when is developing a language and agreeing with that a understanding other easily each cavemen may not they whereas “red” sunset is or a or fire, blood, or flower, while see it as blue One may at all. is the same color agree that cyan as green. the other insensitive to wavelength changes in red light, therefore most reds most reds therefore light, in red changes wavelength to insensitive will T looksimilar if us. not the same to E of in English green way grun the (by in German, it’s the centuries; O so grow grow, the original us the modern word also gives gro way, still inextricably are linked. and green I recorded thinking is that the first Current get the Englishwe word? was the P ancestor Central O 3500 BC. around globe and became used in S 2000 BC that forms a primary well as dating to back Hindu) for root as P of the primaryof I ancestors English. us in Englishit became familiar to erythros, as the medical name erythrocytes. I blood cells, red for (I use today. we became the red eventually which read is R P T been connected have to always seems green the word surprisingly, from of come the idea to and grow indeed green things: growing the P in turn came from which, the same Germanic root, nce we we Once development. language to is the key agreement luminaires, easily. a name comes the same thing then all referring to are agree we ruddy, ruby, russet, rust, and other red words. red and other rust, russet, ruby, ruddy, OCOL T 21 PRO e are e are W dd a A Figure 1 – Stages in color names Figure hat it says is that ifhat it says W erlin and Kay studied, 92 studied, erlin and Kay f the and look from at it turn this around we his appears to be a constant in human development development in human be a constant his appears to Figure 2 – Just Noticeable Differences for human color vision Noticeable Differences 2 – Just Figure his shows that we are most insensitive to changes in the color of in the color changes to most insensitive are that we his shows he reasons and logic behind the published research are complex, complex, are and logic behind he reasons the published research o explain this table, take it stage by stage. stage. by it stage take this table, o explain T T T hen a language adds a third color, it’s going to be red. be red. to going it’s color, adds a language a third hen you and two, splits into region the green six colors, get to you hen opposite point ofopposite view if of wondering are it means that, we then and other, each as being most similar to the stand out colors which of a single is the leader. worthy red name then being given red light, blue light, and pure green. Conversely, we are most sensitive most sensitive are we Conversely, green. and pure light, blue light, red most that overlap colors and yellow—the cyan around changes to I in the eye. sensors that most languages seem to follow, towards finer and finer color color and finer finer towards follow, to seem that most languages divisions (of that B the 98 languages a language has just two color terms, they will be a dark terms, and a light. color two has just a language W us both. colors gives five and it will yellow, fourth, or green be either W T blue. have now this basic route). follow seemed to but the basic premise is simple, it seems that the order we name we that the order it seems is simple, the basic premise but in the receptors the color to linked directly not surprisingly, is, colors in particularcolor the specific sensitivity to in changes to small eye, parts the minimum ofin different 2 shows Figure the spectrum. needed in the that’s – JND) Difference (Just Noticeable change sees altered. it as having eye the human of before a color wavelength winter 2015 Out ofthe Wood geolwe, close inpronunciation very both to ourcurrent yellow. German). From thosesameroots, O gulr (O gelwaz.became S the distinction isdifficult. the distinction difficult to make. often innature other thanthesky, andit’s adye color thatwasvery than any other color. However, it’s acolor thatdoesn’t too appear strong andclear to today, usasadivision we have more blue gels bronze didfor blue—it asthey really just meantshiny) here thewords are just from afew thatsprang of bhle: languages spread, sotoo didthewords on based bhle. For example, some researchers believe thatbhlemay have even meantyellow! anything towas used thatwaslight-colored describe or shiny. I always, we go back to P wordthat theoriginal for blue didn’t meanthecolor blue atall. B P on context, could yellow meanboth ghre. andgreen along with I probably hard to where agree between thedivision them was. as separate terms, are plantcolors they natural both anditwas I a different path. evolutionary spoken theDark during the meaning weand then know bleu with today from the French from thecolor blue. I t takes somefor time cultures to green andyellow distinguish n P assing down thenow familiarroute through P lue issuch acommon word thatit’s inEnglish to odd discover I None which meanblue! of phalos –Greek for white ( flavus –Latin for yellow blavo –O blanc –French for white or blank blawr – –R belyi T t’s unclear why aword for blue issoslow to develop, itseems so he Greek paleinO phalos became roto-I ld Norse), gel(Middle HighGerman), andgelo(O ndo-E W Figure 3– Where doesblueendandgreen begin? ussian for white ld Spanishfor yellowish-gray elsh forelsh gray uropean yellow wasghelwo which, depending ubsequent derivations of German had theword had German ubsequent as derivations of W e call theseablue,e call often but very it’s green, and nstead, O roto-I A ges, whichtaken had bhleon theoriginal T | Communicatingcolor ndo-E he Greeks thesameword used for nglish obtained theword obtained ld English blaw uropeans where theword bhle nglish developed geolu and ld English ld English, wellaway still roto-Germanic, it ld High n fact n fact A A s s and trees, stones androcks. Once we back again look to P redis adark or orange. However, it’s common very innature; earth B becoming widespreadinthelast60years since word adistinct memory, living for green iswithin of only perhaps come to meangreen inthesamesense aswe useit. T mixedhas been with greenish-blue,particular midori. blueboth andgreen, however thelanguage didhave aword for a color itself. T else;everywhere it’s thenamefor thecolor that’s different, notthe as blue. T colorlight which meansGo, translated aothatisagain iscalled mixedappear to ourears. green have inJapanese divided fully notbeen andthemeanings novices are referred to asao-kusai, or blue.” of “they smell B to anovice or somebody new to atask. I meaningfor thewordother English green we referring usewhen blue, asare theleaves spring. I of as which literally translates things.”“blue (as ineatyour greens), but inJapanese, vegetables are ao-mono, the sameor asimilarword for vegetable aswe do for thecolor green recent.green isvery I or thesky theocean.describing word khiaw usually meansgreen but canrepresent blue when uses theword pureu-da colors. both to describe S terms. bluedistinguish andgreen asprimary Korean, for instance, often much more recent. conveniencewords of terms. thandistinct T reds, others while are yellow. closer to agreyish deep chestnut brown. iscalled S meanings. E of range wide a very before itscurrent meaning. itgained E hard to pindown, itseems to aslate be although asthe13thcentury over to theword inEnglish brownadifferent with connotation is to usmeaningthecolor inwords like “brunette.” T inthewordEnglish meaningto itcomes burnish while polish down shining anddark). T the meaningshifted (asopposed to to mean shiningandlight shifted to brunaz. I this samemeaningthrough P shinythat meantsomethingwasboth colored. anddark I E uropean for the derivation of brown.uropean for thederivation of T rown color; isanodd it’s and, thespectrum inreality, of notpart I E Now we to get thecolor terms thataren’t essential, are they more n modern Japanese,n modern into thedivision terms for distinct blue and ven today there are languages thatdon’t modern fully he traffic lights in lights Japan arehe traffic thesame arecolor asthey he word to aoused theonly be word Japanese for had n O his “shiny” persistsinmodern meaningstill W n English, asinmany other languages, we use nglish this became brun or brune, brun thisbecame ld English and estern culture sothatword hasnow midori A s afinal example, in traffic Japanese the roto-Germanic asitspronunciation ome of thesecolors are dark ome of actually t’s we thesamewhen atthe look verything from to apaletaupe a verything A s time hasgones time on, andJapanese ven today theword brown has n Japanese, thosesame he original term wasbher he original A pples inJapanese are also he derivation of theseis he derivation of W orld orld imilarly, theT he exactswitch his adoption W ar II. roto-I lue and t kept ndo- hai winter 2015 ld his t’s so t’s n echnical echnical omans omans e may think e may T he color he color W he R Communicating color | Communicating nglish referred English referred then, efore ncient Greek, the word was the word Greek, ncient A n ersian naranj, and to narange in O to and naranj, ersian ood Consulting LLC, which provides consulting which provides consulting ood Consulting LLC, nglish, purpurald English, became purpul from W uropean word at all, in fact the color’s name fact in the color’s at all, word uropean rabic and P n O anskrit word for the fruit naranga. T the fruit for naranga. anskrit word A hus, it is associated with it is associated of the purple robes hus, t wasn’t until the 14th century that the color was until the 14th century that the color t wasn’t he fact that it’s completely imaginary completely and he fact that it’s E ndo- Out of the Wood Wood of the Out nglish we have a common habit of habit a common nouns that altering n English have we I roto- he word for the fruit didn’t also become the word for the color the color for the word also become the fruit for didn’t he word his moving of the “n” to the indefinite article the indefinite in can happen to “n” his moving of the T T I find but every aspect ifof agree, know color you I don’t his word is also more recent. I recent. more is also his word runs Mike runs Mike Wood Mike French. I French. the beginning from of the word ‘n’ moving the by ‘n’ begin with an “a napron” Just like of the end it. to article indefinite the before nadder” “a and notch,” “a became otch” “an apron,” “an became orange.” “an became norange” “a did so too adder,” “an became B in English until 16th century. the “yellow- translates literally which to geoluhread, as color the to becomes when a color pink was originally like light-red, Just red.” important enough it gains its own name rather than as a derivative of type. another color reddish-blue a for dye a shellfish-derived for a term porphrya, T call purple today. than what we’d red that is more as purpura used the name occasionally dye and the Greek adopted extremely this was an in those days as well, the garment for color T dye. expensive association with and has a derived upper and senators emperors I and royalty. class rather it still meant a dye however is clear, root the current which I than the color. lighting and in our professional important lives us in our daily to to measure. and difficult is also ephemeral but world, in entertainment color for a standard in developing slow are we up with come seven to if but lighting, thousand years four it takes all agree on of still and we don’t names, color fundamental different a while? taken be at all should we surprised that it’s those, the other direction as well, for example “an eke-name” became “a “a became eke-name” “an example for as well, direction the other newt.” “a became ewte” “an and nickname,” the dye. named after T fascinating. I the intrigue. adds to just incommunicable fundamentally T orange was named after the fruit, not the other way around. T around. way the other not the fruit, orange was named after the into mutated Not a P Not the S from derives support to companies within the entertainment industry on product design, support to companies within the entertainment industry on product design, A 35-year and Intellectual Property. standards, R&D, technology strategy, is the Immediate Mike of the entertainment technology industry, veteran Chair of the PLASA Governing Body and Co-Chair of the Past can be reached at [email protected]. Mike Standards Council.