HISTORICAL COLOUR NAMES

Evening Star, Issue 22685, 26 June 1937, Page 25

HISTORICAL COLOUR NAMES

Human nature always rejects in the end that which it does not like, and this is the case with the names of colours. A new name dies unless it satisfies something mysterious in humanity, and is applied to a really new colour.

When a certain brownish-drab cotton cloth was made for uniforms intended to be worn in hot countries, a name had to found for it, and somebody called it khaki, from the Persian word meaning dust. An uneasy sort of word, yet obviously right, because khaki has become a definite colour with a very definite meaning of its own. A more beautiful name, peculiarly suited to a beautiful colour, is magenta. The brilliant red hue made from coal tar was discovered by the chemists in the year 1859, and was regarded as a great achievement, but no name could be invented to describe it. At this time the French and Sardinians were fighting against the Austrians, and when the latter were defeated at the famous battle fought at Magenta, in Italy, the new red dye was named after the town. Another lovely red colour, known as damask, takes its name from the city of Damascus. To the ancient world Damascus was a magic city, and everything coming from it was tinged with enchantment. So the famous deep red rose, which eventually found its way from Damascus to Europe, .was known as the daiUask" rose, and when Dr Linacre, physician of Henry YIII., took it to London, its name went with it. Silks and linens were first woven at Damascus and afterwards copied by the Dutch, and they are still called by their ancient name no matter what colour they may be. The damson also takes its name from its native place, Damascus. One of the most lovely colours in the world is cobalt blue, the unfading blue seen in ancient Chinese' porcelain. Persian tiles, and old paintings. The people of the East kept the secret of the metal from which they extracted the colour for many centuries. In Europe it was called cohalt, from the German word kobold, the goblin who works underground and it always up to some mischief. The deep brown colour made from the cuttle fish was called sepia, the Greek word . for cuttle fish; and when another shade of brown having a yellow or orange tinge was made in Italy, at Siena, it was named sienna. Maroon comes from the French word, marron, the chestnut, and it applies to the bright reddish brown which is not often seen to-day. ..... Perhaps the most peculiar historical colour is that which used to be called Isabella, a shade of dirty yellow. It is a fact Isabella of Austria vowed at tbo siego of Oslend not to change her linen until the place fell. The siege lasted throe years and her linen assumed a strange hue in consequence.