Do you know any cool facts about colors?
March 31, 2023 2:28 PM Subscribe
I'm in need of some interesting facts/trivia/tidbits about colors. Please, don't leave me feeling blue, or seeing red; even if your prose is purple, I can take it.
Best answer: The color term hierarchy is super interesting.
Basically, when you compare languages with fewer basic color terms to languages with more basic color terms, there are consistent patterns to which colors get their own names.
Languages that only have a few basic color terms tend to use them to refer to light, dark, and red. If there's a few more, they refer to blue/green and orange/yellow.
All the way up to languages like Russian which have more basic color terms than English -- they have a different basic word for "light blue" as opposed to "dark blue".
(To be clear, it's not that languages with fewer basic color terms have no way of referring to different shades -- they just use modifiers or descriptions instead of a single word, like how we say "sky blue" or "dark blue" in English.)
posted by mekily at 2:44 PM on March 31, 2023 [6 favorites]
Basically, when you compare languages with fewer basic color terms to languages with more basic color terms, there are consistent patterns to which colors get their own names.
Languages that only have a few basic color terms tend to use them to refer to light, dark, and red. If there's a few more, they refer to blue/green and orange/yellow.
All the way up to languages like Russian which have more basic color terms than English -- they have a different basic word for "light blue" as opposed to "dark blue".
(To be clear, it's not that languages with fewer basic color terms have no way of referring to different shades -- they just use modifiers or descriptions instead of a single word, like how we say "sky blue" or "dark blue" in English.)
posted by mekily at 2:44 PM on March 31, 2023 [6 favorites]
Why is “indigo” in the color spectrum? Because blue isn’t the color you think it is.
posted by rikschell at 2:46 PM on March 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 2:46 PM on March 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
The darkest black* is Vantablack and owned by the designer of the Bean sculpture in Chicago (and he hates that I just called it the Bean). There's a lot of drama around this - just see MF for reference.
*The Darkest Black is now darker - see here.
posted by hydra77 at 2:51 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
*The Darkest Black is now darker - see here.
posted by hydra77 at 2:51 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Most languages came up with "blue" last.
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:57 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:57 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Technology Connections: Brown; Color is Weird
Magenta doesn't exist
Alec also goes into the non-spectral colors of purple and magenta in the Weird World of RGB
posted by Rash at 2:57 PM on March 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
Magenta doesn't exist
Alec also goes into the non-spectral colors of purple and magenta in the Weird World of RGB
posted by Rash at 2:57 PM on March 31, 2023 [3 favorites]
There is an html colour called Rebecca.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:57 PM on March 31, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:57 PM on March 31, 2023 [6 favorites]
Mauve was the first artificial color.
Blue isn’t mentioned at all in The Iliad or The Odyssey, and they may not have had a word for blue at all.
posted by Mchelly at 2:58 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Blue isn’t mentioned at all in The Iliad or The Odyssey, and they may not have had a word for blue at all.
posted by Mchelly at 2:58 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Tyrian purple, derived from the mucus of a sea snail, was so expensive and highly prized that there were sumptuary laws in ancient Rome restricting who could wear it.
posted by Jeanne at 3:02 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Jeanne at 3:02 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Radio Lab episode linked by Mchelly is excellent.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:23 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:23 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
This WikiPedia article talks about "impossible colors" that you can't perceive under normal circumstances. It's pretty cool. I wonder why this topic gets so little coverage.
posted by alex1965 at 4:05 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by alex1965 at 4:05 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Fuchsia is one of the few colors named after a person - Leonhart Fuchs (bonus: If you remember that, it's 100x easier to remember how to spell fuchsia).
Technically the plant was named after Fuchs (he was a botanist) and the color is named after the plant, but close enough.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 4:21 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Technically the plant was named after Fuchs (he was a botanist) and the color is named after the plant, but close enough.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 4:21 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Indigo is a color in the rainbow because of Isaac Newton’s mysticism.
Just think, we could have had grue instead!
posted by kittydelsol at 4:47 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Just think, we could have had grue instead!
posted by kittydelsol at 4:47 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Addams Family tv show set was pink.
The Addams Family set was done in shades of pinks and yellows, because on black and white film they would show a greater variety of grays and blacks. Also worth noting that all those Victorian photographs were not of people dressed in drab black and gray; those gowns were probably lovely purples, yellows, and pinks!
posted by annieb at 4:52 PM on March 31, 2023 [5 favorites]
The Addams Family set was done in shades of pinks and yellows, because on black and white film they would show a greater variety of grays and blacks. Also worth noting that all those Victorian photographs were not of people dressed in drab black and gray; those gowns were probably lovely purples, yellows, and pinks!
posted by annieb at 4:52 PM on March 31, 2023 [5 favorites]
Most colors correspond to wavelengths of light. These are the spectral colors. But some colors aren’t on the spectrum and don’t correspond to a wavelength. While violet has a wavelength, purple is created by the human mind when it sees red and blue. (This is another take on the magenta link posted by Hydra77.)
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:08 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:08 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Mummy brown is so named because it was originally made out of mummies.
posted by babelfish at 5:35 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by babelfish at 5:35 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
My favorite new newsletter just had a great post "How to see impossible colors".
posted by lemonade at 5:35 PM on March 31, 2023
posted by lemonade at 5:35 PM on March 31, 2023
Pink is named after the flower (like a carnation) and orange after the fruit.
posted by hydrobatidae at 5:37 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by hydrobatidae at 5:37 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Here's another fun tidbit, though esoteric.
The original IBM PC could display up to 16 colours, all mixtures of red, green and blue either on or off, and at two levels of on, either half bright, or full bright.
This would make black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white (full bright), plus half brightness versions of the above.
However, IBM engineers made a special modification to the 5153 monitor so that "full bright black" which would otherwise still be black, would show as dark grey, and even more curiously, "half bright yellow" which would be a dim yellow, would instead show as brown (which is not the same as dim yellow). They had to cut the amount of green especially for that one colour in order to make a brown.
Technical details here.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:51 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
The original IBM PC could display up to 16 colours, all mixtures of red, green and blue either on or off, and at two levels of on, either half bright, or full bright.
This would make black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white (full bright), plus half brightness versions of the above.
However, IBM engineers made a special modification to the 5153 monitor so that "full bright black" which would otherwise still be black, would show as dark grey, and even more curiously, "half bright yellow" which would be a dim yellow, would instead show as brown (which is not the same as dim yellow). They had to cut the amount of green especially for that one colour in order to make a brown.
Technical details here.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:51 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Pantone color chart evolved from an ornithologist’s (Robert Ridgway) description of the color of birds and other things in the natural world.
The color teal is named for the bird (the Eurasian Teal)
Blue birds aren’t blue. There are also no actual green pigmented birds in North America.
posted by oomny at 5:54 PM on March 31, 2023 [5 favorites]
The color teal is named for the bird (the Eurasian Teal)
Blue birds aren’t blue. There are also no actual green pigmented birds in North America.
posted by oomny at 5:54 PM on March 31, 2023 [5 favorites]
Vantablack isn't owned by Kapoor he just has an exclusive license to use it for art.
A Blue Jay's feathers aren't actually blue. The pigment in them is brown but they look blue because of how they scatter light. Apparently many other blue birds are the same. On preview oomny got this first.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:57 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
A Blue Jay's feathers aren't actually blue. The pigment in them is brown but they look blue because of how they scatter light. Apparently many other blue birds are the same. On preview oomny got this first.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:57 PM on March 31, 2023 [1 favorite]
Metamerism is interesting - although (most) humans have 3 color receptors (Red, Green, Blue) you can't actually reproduce realistic colors with those 3 colors.
posted by soylent00FF00 at 7:28 PM on March 31, 2023
posted by soylent00FF00 at 7:28 PM on March 31, 2023
The pattern behind worldwide color names
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 8:25 PM on March 31, 2023
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 8:25 PM on March 31, 2023
The first colour television broadcast in Australia featured a cross-dressing biker who threatened to rip peoples' arms off.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 11:30 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 11:30 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
A deal of philological fun may be had by getting William T. Stearn's Botanical Latin out of the library. I bought a copy recently in a thrift shop for £2GBP:
Whites: Candida albicans is the off-white pure-white fungus, for example. Neither is as snow-white as nivalis. Milk white lacteus otoh has a touch of blue, while chalk-white cretaceus has a hint of grey and is definitely matt. Argenteus is a silvery white with a lustre. cremeus or eborinus are creamy because there is an undertone of yellow.
Greys: you know that gray is darker than grey, of course. In Latin we have cineraceus, cinereus ashy, griseus pearly, schistaceus slatey, plumbeus leaden going in the opposite direction from more white to more black. Stearn throws murinus mousy and fumosus smokey in with the greys.
Yellows and oranges: Loadsa tones here. Citronus lemony; aureus golden; luteus / xantho "such yellow as gamboge"; flavus is paler than gamboge; sulphureus is "more lively"; stramineus straw-coloured; ochraeus ochre ochroleucus a whiter shade of ochre; cerinus waxy vitellinus yolky; croceus saffron; aurantiacus orange; fluvus tawny.
Greens: smaragdinus paddy green; viridis / chloro a tone down; aeruginosus verdigris; glaucus, thalassicus sea-green - a bit of blue; atrovirens a deep dark blackish green; flavovirens stained with yellow; olivaceus / elaio olive drab.
Blues: Greek and Russian have two different names for oxford μπλε синий and cambridge κυανός, γαλανός голубой blues. Botanical Latin has a range also. Cyanus Prussian, cornflower; indigoticus indigo; azureus sky-blue; caesius eye-blue, lavender's hint of grey; caeruleus regular blue; violaceus blue stained with red; lilacinus is a paler violet; lazulinus ultramarine; cobaltinus ;
Reds: Puniceus carmine; ruber /erythro blood red; roseus rosy; corallinus coral; incarnatus flesh-coloured; coccineus cinnabarinus scarlet; igneus flaming; miniatus vermillion; laterititius brick; rubiginosus reddy-brown; cupreus coppery gilvus terra-cotta..
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:59 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Whites: Candida albicans is the off-white pure-white fungus, for example. Neither is as snow-white as nivalis. Milk white lacteus otoh has a touch of blue, while chalk-white cretaceus has a hint of grey and is definitely matt. Argenteus is a silvery white with a lustre. cremeus or eborinus are creamy because there is an undertone of yellow.
Greys: you know that gray is darker than grey, of course. In Latin we have cineraceus, cinereus ashy, griseus pearly, schistaceus slatey, plumbeus leaden going in the opposite direction from more white to more black. Stearn throws murinus mousy and fumosus smokey in with the greys.
Yellows and oranges: Loadsa tones here. Citronus lemony; aureus golden; luteus / xantho "such yellow as gamboge"; flavus is paler than gamboge; sulphureus is "more lively"; stramineus straw-coloured; ochraeus ochre ochroleucus a whiter shade of ochre; cerinus waxy vitellinus yolky; croceus saffron; aurantiacus orange; fluvus tawny.
Greens: smaragdinus paddy green; viridis / chloro a tone down; aeruginosus verdigris; glaucus, thalassicus sea-green - a bit of blue; atrovirens a deep dark blackish green; flavovirens stained with yellow; olivaceus / elaio olive drab.
Blues: Greek and Russian have two different names for oxford μπλε синий and cambridge κυανός, γαλανός голубой blues. Botanical Latin has a range also. Cyanus Prussian, cornflower; indigoticus indigo; azureus sky-blue; caesius eye-blue, lavender's hint of grey; caeruleus regular blue; violaceus blue stained with red; lilacinus is a paler violet; lazulinus ultramarine; cobaltinus ;
Reds: Puniceus carmine; ruber /erythro blood red; roseus rosy; corallinus coral; incarnatus flesh-coloured; coccineus cinnabarinus scarlet; igneus flaming; miniatus vermillion; laterititius brick; rubiginosus reddy-brown; cupreus coppery gilvus terra-cotta..
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:59 PM on March 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
Perhaps this is too widely known to be interesting: the scarlet dye carmine (also a word for a shade of red) is made from cochineal, a scale insect found in Mexico. Similarly, the word crimson itself is related to kermes, a scale insect that feeds on the sap of a species of oak.
posted by Joeruckus at 12:43 AM on April 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Joeruckus at 12:43 AM on April 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Eigengrau (German for "intrinsic gray"; pronounced [ˈʔaɪ̯gŋ̍ˌgʁaʊ̯]), also called Eigenlicht (Dutch and German for "intrinsic light"), dark light, or brain gray, is the uniform dark gray background color that many people report seeing in the absence of light. (Wikipedia)
Is the shade of black that you see when it's dark and your eyes are closed. There are blacker blacks but this is the surface dreams emerge from.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:11 AM on April 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Is the shade of black that you see when it's dark and your eyes are closed. There are blacker blacks but this is the surface dreams emerge from.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:11 AM on April 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Tom Scott has at least 2 interesting videos about colour: about a rare colour library and about an extremely pink pink.
posted by snusmumrik at 1:24 AM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by snusmumrik at 1:24 AM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
There is a pendant story to the blackest back about the pinkest pink. Anybody can use it, except Anish Kapoor.
posted by bwonder2 at 4:17 AM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by bwonder2 at 4:17 AM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
There are different systems for reproducing color, additive and, I suppose, subtractive. There are ways to fool the brain into seeing colors when lookin at a black and white pattern.
Edwin Land did research into color vision as part of developing the color Poloroid camera.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:10 AM on April 1, 2023
Edwin Land did research into color vision as part of developing the color Poloroid camera.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:10 AM on April 1, 2023
Lots of animal perceive color differently than we do. Mantis shrimp stand out for being able to sense 12 channels of 'primary' colors, detect polarization, and see UV.
Related to the stuff about non-spectral colors above. Most of us implicitly conceptualize color as an intrinsic property of an object. But it's not, it's a property of the thing, the color and direction of light, your eye, and your brain. It's even worse when a camera and display is involved.
The only way colors are simple physics is when you're talking about a laser emitting light at a single wavelength. All non-luminous objects have no inherent color, that's just a convenient rubric we use based on the kinds of light we normally see them in. That's why it's so easy to drive people nuts with The Dress and many similar things.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:35 AM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Related to the stuff about non-spectral colors above. Most of us implicitly conceptualize color as an intrinsic property of an object. But it's not, it's a property of the thing, the color and direction of light, your eye, and your brain. It's even worse when a camera and display is involved.
The only way colors are simple physics is when you're talking about a laser emitting light at a single wavelength. All non-luminous objects have no inherent color, that's just a convenient rubric we use based on the kinds of light we normally see them in. That's why it's so easy to drive people nuts with The Dress and many similar things.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:35 AM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yellow light exists, but the human eye can’t actually see yellow. The brain makes in out of red and green.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:48 AM on April 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:48 AM on April 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Fluorescent pigments absorb ultraviolet light that we can’t see and re-emit it as visible light,
which is what makes them appear to glow under black lights.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:57 AM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
which is what makes them appear to glow under black lights.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:57 AM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Green-yellow chartreuse is very close to the centre of the spectrum of light visible to the human eye, and is thus the colour that we are most sensitive to. Green-yellow is the colour of tennis balls, reflective safety vests and so on for this reason.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:40 AM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:40 AM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
There was a village in the mountains that was so isolated that there was only one road through the village. The road went down one side of the valley, through the centre of the village, and back up the other side of the valley. One day, a truck loaded with red paint was driving down the road on one side of the valley, and another truck loaded with purple paint was driving down the the road on the other side of the valley. It just so happened that they both lost their brakes at the same time. They careened out of control down the road and collided in the centre of the village. The entire village was... marooned for three days.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:47 AM on April 1, 2023
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:47 AM on April 1, 2023
Tennis balls are also the color they are because Sir David Attenborough figured out that it was a good idea.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:59 AM on April 1, 2023
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:59 AM on April 1, 2023
Tony the Tiger's nose is blue.
posted by unknowncommand at 7:26 AM on April 1, 2023
posted by unknowncommand at 7:26 AM on April 1, 2023
The coat of many colors in the Bible was a mistranslation.
posted by Melismata at 8:37 AM on April 1, 2023
posted by Melismata at 8:37 AM on April 1, 2023
Polar bears aren't white. (e.g.) Not sure if that counts as a cool fact about white for your purposes, or really just a cool fact about polar bears, but I figure you can be the judge of that.
posted by daisyace at 9:15 AM on April 1, 2023
posted by daisyace at 9:15 AM on April 1, 2023
Technology Connections: Brown; Color is Weird
I guess I should elaborate, since triviums were requested. In the video Alec discusses how we all see a lot of things we call brown. He eventually gets around to this brown fact: There is No Brown Light. Yes, the human eye sees color by what's reflected, but all that brown stuff is reflecting orange, not brown, light. (Your beer bottle is made of orange, not brown glass.)
More about brown: Once I heard that no nation has any brown in its flag (and you can probably guess why). But I was challenged on this by the eagle of the Mexican flag, so either it's not true or Mexico is The Exception That Proves the Rule. (Yeah, I love parroting that old bit of foolishness.)
Finally, you've probably heard of White Noise, maybe you even have a generator near the head of your bed, like me; but Science has also given us Pink Noise and Brown Noise (but it seems that the Brown Note is a myth).
posted by Rash at 12:15 PM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
I guess I should elaborate, since triviums were requested. In the video Alec discusses how we all see a lot of things we call brown. He eventually gets around to this brown fact: There is No Brown Light. Yes, the human eye sees color by what's reflected, but all that brown stuff is reflecting orange, not brown, light. (Your beer bottle is made of orange, not brown glass.)
More about brown: Once I heard that no nation has any brown in its flag (and you can probably guess why). But I was challenged on this by the eagle of the Mexican flag, so either it's not true or Mexico is The Exception That Proves the Rule. (Yeah, I love parroting that old bit of foolishness.)
Finally, you've probably heard of White Noise, maybe you even have a generator near the head of your bed, like me; but Science has also given us Pink Noise and Brown Noise (but it seems that the Brown Note is a myth).
posted by Rash at 12:15 PM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Not a fact about a specific color, but still quite interesting: Goethe was really into color theory.
posted by kmt at 12:40 PM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by kmt at 12:40 PM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Red nosed reindeer are protected by copyright.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 2:15 PM on April 1, 2023
posted by Winnie the Proust at 2:15 PM on April 1, 2023
Tetrachromacy
Wikipedia seemed reluctant to say whether there are functional human tetrachromats, finally saying:
In 2010, after twenty years' study of women with four types of cones (non-functional tetrachromats), neuroscientist Gabriele Jordan identified a woman (subject cDa29) who could detect a greater variety of colors than trichromats could, corresponding with a functional tetrachromat (or true tetrachromat).
Anyway, let it blow your mind what the person who is the opposite of color-blind might experience.
Previous post on the blue about how blue can't be focused at the same time as other colors. The most impressive part to me was that the discussion revealed some excellent refutation of the idea that ancient Greeks did not have words for blue.
posted by polecat at 6:04 PM on April 1, 2023
Wikipedia seemed reluctant to say whether there are functional human tetrachromats, finally saying:
In 2010, after twenty years' study of women with four types of cones (non-functional tetrachromats), neuroscientist Gabriele Jordan identified a woman (subject cDa29) who could detect a greater variety of colors than trichromats could, corresponding with a functional tetrachromat (or true tetrachromat).
Anyway, let it blow your mind what the person who is the opposite of color-blind might experience.
Previous post on the blue about how blue can't be focused at the same time as other colors. The most impressive part to me was that the discussion revealed some excellent refutation of the idea that ancient Greeks did not have words for blue.
posted by polecat at 6:04 PM on April 1, 2023
Here's the link that Pyrogenesis posted in that thread. Not only do we know the ancient Greek words for blue, but it appears that Homer did use them. The article ought to really fill your bag of cool facts.
posted by polecat at 6:09 PM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by polecat at 6:09 PM on April 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Pink used to be a colour associated with masculinity because it’s a lighter shade of red.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 9:38 AM on April 2, 2023
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 9:38 AM on April 2, 2023
ISTR (MeFi’s own) asavage geeking out once on his well-known show about some glass models of bacteria because they were glass: the microscopic organisms that they depicted were smaller than the wavelength of visible light so they did not and indeed could not have any colour.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:17 PM on April 2, 2023
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:17 PM on April 2, 2023
The “redness of red” or “orangeosity of orange” are common examples of qualia (singular: quale), instances of subjective, conscious experience (and also a fun vocabulary word). Vintage WaPo column from 1994: Color me confused: Why is red red? Why is green green?
posted by branular at 8:43 PM on April 2, 2023
posted by branular at 8:43 PM on April 2, 2023
Also: Missed my opportunity to post this on Saturday, but still worth commemorating the 22nd anniversary of the announcement of Squant (via Wayback Machine), the “fourth primary color.” (Slashdot thread: RGBS: Color Spaces For The New Millenium)
posted by branular at 8:48 PM on April 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by branular at 8:48 PM on April 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
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