Etymograph

English

color

Color comes from Middle English colour, from Anglo-Norman colur, from Old French colour, from Latin color.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcolor‘color’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400colour‘colour’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400colur
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500colour‘colour’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1770color

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcolor‘color’
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400colour‘colour’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400colur
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500colour‘colour’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1770color

Earliest quotation: 1770, Parliamentary Privilege Act 1770: “no such action, suit, or any other process or…”

The story

Largely displaced English blee, Middle English blee (‘color’), from Old English blēo. Also partially replaced Old English hīew (‘color’) and its descendants (English hue), which is less often used in this sense. The spelling color was popularized in modern American English by Noah Webster, to match the spelling of the word's Latin etymon, and make all American spellings of the derivatives consistent (colorimeter, coloration, colorize, colorless, etc).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- ‘to cover’

hell, cell, hall, hole, ceiling, hull, helmet, holder, halt, helm, hollow, holden, occult, conceal, uphold, clandestine, sari, sala, cilia, recline, declination, declension, haugh, seel, halberd, hele, holing, 37 more

through Latin color ‘color (US), colour (UK)’

tricolour, 4 more

Today it means

noun The spectral composition of visible light.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin color / color

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