A color term (or color name) is a word or phrase that refers to a specific color. The color term may refer to human perception of that color (which is affected by visual context) which is usually defined according to the Munsell color system, or to an underlying physical property (such as a specific wavelength on the spectrum of visible light). There are also numerical systems of color specification, referred to as color spaces.
An important distinction must be established between color and shape, as these two attributes usually are used in conjunction with one another when describing in language. For example, they are labeled as alternative parts of speech terms color term and shape term.
Psychological conditions for recognition of colors exist, such as those who cannot discern colors in general or those who see colors as sound (a variety of synesthesia).
Color dimensions Typical human color vision is trichromatic, meaning it is based on a three-dimensional color gamut. These three dimensions can be defined in different ways, but often the most intuitive definition are the dimensions of the HSL/HSV color space:
Hue: representing the different colors of the rainbow or color wheel (e.g. 'red', 'orange', 'yellow', etc.); roughly analogous to the color's wavelength or frequency. Saturation: the colorfulness of the color, i.e. a measure of vibrant vs. pale. Luminosity: a measurement of intensity or 'brightness'.
In natural languages
Lexicology Monolexemic color words are composed of individual lexemes, or root words, such as 'red', 'brown', 'fuchsia', or 'olive'. The root words generally describe the hue of the color, but some root wordsnamely browncan also describe the other dimensions. Compound color words make use of prefix adjectives (e.g. 'light brown', 'sea green'), that generally describe the saturation or luminosity, or compounded basic color words (e.g. 'yellow-green'), which refine the hue of the color relative to root words. , the Finnish word for 'pink', is a clear agglutination of the language's words for 'pale' () and 'red' ().
Basic color terms
Basic color terms meet the following criteria: monolexemic ('green', but not 'light green' or 'forest green'), high-frequency, and agreed upon by speakers of that language.
English has 11 basic color terms according to Brent Berlin and Paul Kay: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, orange, pink, purple, and gray; other languages have between 2 and 12. All other colors are considered by most speakers of that language to be variants of these basic color terms. A useful litmus test involves replacing each of these basic terms with an approximation of other basic terms, e.g. replacing orange with red-yellow. If the approximation is jarring, the replaced term likely meets the requirement for being a basic color term. An example of a color that comes close to being a basic color term in English is turquoise. It is monolexemic, but is not very high frequency, especially compared to alternatives teal or cyan. It also generally fails the above litmus test in that most people do not find the use of the approximation of other basic color terms (blue-green) to be jarring.
Color-term hierarchy In the classic study of Brent Berlin and Paul Kay (1969), Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution, the researchers argued that the differences in number of basic color terms in languages follow a repeatable pattern. Color terms can be organized into a coherent hierarchy and there are a limited number of universal basic color terms which begin to be used by individual cultures in a relatively fixed order. This order is defined in stages I to VII. Berlin and Kay originally based their analysis on a comparison of color words in 20 languages from around the world. The model is presented below, broken into stages, with stage I on the left and stage VII on the right:
Berlin and Kay's study identified seven stages of color distinction systems. Each progressive stage features a color term that the previous stages do not.
Stage I (dark and light) Stage I light–warm (white/yellow/red)dark–cool (black/blue/green) Stage I contains two terms, white and black (light and dark); these terms are referenced broadly to describe other undefined color terms. For example, the Yali highland group in New Guinea identify the color of blood as black. This is because blood, as a relatively dark liquid, is grouped into the same color classification as black.
In the Bassa language, there are two terms for classifying colors: (white, yellow, orange, and red) and (black, violet or purple, blue, and green).
In the Pirahã language, there appear to be no color terms beyond describing lightness and darkness.Kay, Paul. (2007). Pirahã Color Terms. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
The Dani language of western New Guinea differentiates only two basic colors: for cool/dark shades such as blue, green, and black; and for warm/light colors such as red, yellow, and white.
Stage II (red) Stage II whitered/yellowblack/blue/green Stage II implements a third term for red. Objects begin to rely less on their brightness for classification and instead, each term cover a larger scope of colors. Specifically, blue and other darker shades continue to be described as black, yellow and orange colors are classified with red, and other bright colors continue to be classified with white.
In the Bambara language, there are three color terms: (white, beige), (reddish, brownish), and (dark green, indigo, and black).
Stage III/IV (yellow + green) Stage IIIwhiteredyellowblack/blue/greenwhiteredyellow/green/blueblackwhitered/yellowgreen/blueblack Stage III identifies a third term referring either to green (IIIa) or yellow (IIIb). Most languages in the study with this system identify yellow over green, such as the Komi language, where green is considered a shade of yellow (, ), called ( .Rueter, Jack M. (1996), Komia-anglisköĭ-finsköĭ However, the Nigerian Ibibio language and the Philippine Hanunoo language both identify green instead of yellow.
The Ovahimba use four color names: stands for dark shades of blue, red, green, and purple; is white and some shades of yellow; is some shades of green and blue; and is some other shades of green, red, and brown. It is thought that this may increase the time it takes for the Ovahimba to distinguish between two colors that fall under the same Herero color category, compared to people whose language separates the colors into two different color categories.
Stage IVwhiteredyellowgreenblack/bluewhiteredyellowgreen/blueblack Stage IV incorporates green or yellow, whichever was not already present, i.e. stage IIIa languages will adopt yellow and stage IIIb languages will adopt green. Most stage IV languages continue to colexify blue and green, as listed in Blue–green distinction in language.
The Chinese character 青 (pronounced in Mandarin and in Japanese) has a meaning that covers both blue and green. In more contemporary terms, they are 藍 (, in Mandarin) and 綠 (, in Mandarin) respectively. Japanese also has two terms that refer specifically to the color green, (, derived from the classical Japanese descriptive verb in reference to trees) and (, which is derived from the English word 'green').
Stage V (blue) Stage Vwhiteredyellowgreenblueblack Stage V introduces blue as its own color term, differentiating from black or from green.
Stage VI (brown) The seventh basic color term is likely to be brown.
In English, this is the first basic color term (other than black and white) that is not differentiated on hue, but rather on lightness. English splits some hues into several distinct colors according to lightness: such as red and pink or orange and brown. To English speakers, these pairs of colors, which are objectively no more different from one another than light green and dark green, are conceived of as belonging to different categories.
Stage VII Stage VII adds additional terms for orange, pink, purple, or gray, but these do not exhibit the same hierarchy as the previous seven colors.
English contains eleven basic color terms: 'black', 'white', 'red', 'green', 'yellow', 'blue', 'brown', 'orange', 'pink', 'purple', and 'gray'.
Stage VII+
Languages with further color distinction use relativistic light/dark terms like light blue/ dark blue (in comparison to blue sky/ blue ocean), or pale red/ deep red.
Italian, Russian and Hebrew have twelve basic color terms, each distinguishing blue and light blue. A Russian will make the same red/pink and orange/brown distinctions, but will also make a further distinction between () and (), which English speakers would call dark and light blue. To Russian speakers, and are as separate as red and pink, or orange and brown.
Hungarian and Turkish distinguish multiple words for 'red': and (Hungarian; is a darker red), and , , and (Turkish); now includes all reds but originally referred to crimson, to which it is cognate, while mainly refers to scarlet and other orange-tinted or brownish reds. Two words for 'red' are also found in Irish and Scottish Gaelic: ( for light, bright red and or respectively for dark, brownish red). Turkish also has two words for 'white' ( and ) and 'black' ( and ). and have the same meaning, while is a broader term than and also includes dark browns; which word is used also depends on the kind of object being described. Both and are of Turkic origin, while is borrowed from Persian, and from Arabic .
In Serbo-Croatian there are differences in dark brown (), brown ( and ), red (), pink (), and orange (), as well as in blue hues: navy blue (), dark blue (), blue (), and ash blue ().
A case that deviates from this pattern is Irish's two words for green: denotes the green color of plants denotes artificial greens of dyes, paints etc. This distinction is made even if two shades are identical. is also used for "natural" grays, such as the gray squirrel, .
Linguistic relativity
These colors roughly correspond to the sensitivities of the retinal ganglion cells, leading Berlin and Kay to argue that color naming is not merely a cultural phenomenon, but is one that is also constrained by biology—that is, language is shaped by perception. A 2012 study suggested that the origin of this hierarchy may be tied to human vision and the time ordering in which these color names get accepted or agreed upon in a population perfectly matches the order predicted by the hierarchy.
Non-hue terms This article mostly describes the color terms that define the hue of a color, since hue is considered the most innate dimension of the three. However, other terms are often used to describe the other two dimensions, which can be seen as common prefixes to the root terms that generally describe hue. Adding prefixes to root color terms generates multilexemic colors. Examples of common prefix adjectives can be seen in a list of color names and are described: Brightness: can describe either high luminosity or high saturation, according to the Helmholtz–Kohlrausch effect and/or Hunt effect. Lightness: describes both a high luminosity and low saturation Darkness: the opposite of lightness, or low luminosity Paleness, dullness: a measure of desaturation Deep, Royal: may refer to darkness and/or high saturation; unrelated to color depth. Pure, Bold, Vivid, Rich: all referring to high saturation Pastel: refers to colors with high luminosity and low saturation. Neon: bright, in either of the word's connotations; alluding to the bright glow of neon lighting. Fluorescent: very bright, sometimes also highly saturated. Named after the fluorescence effect of pigments and dyes, which can produce a luminous glow when viewed under ultraviolet light, thereby appearing significantly brighter than their surroundings.
Non-dimensional terms