by Kevin Burton
I have at times, felt sorry for those Americans who live in places that do not have four discernable seasons.
Spring, summer, fall and winter.
I have lived in the Midwest most of my life and have experienced times when those four seasons all came within the same week. I’m not necessarily so fond of that.
But this time of year, fall colors, make me glad I live where I live.
Page 7 readers know I am legally blind, with high partial vision. My then girlfriend, now wife Jeannette told me years ago, once she had gotten the full Kev experience, that “you see what you want to see.”
And ladies, by now you are well aware that this “see what you want to see” business, has little to do with being legally blind and much more to do with being male. I mean, I also hear what I want to hear.
And all female readers said, “Aaay-men!”
If you had grown up at a school for blind children with partial vision as I did, you would have learned long ago, to thank God for what vision I have rather than bemoaning what I don’t have. On my better days, that’s where I live. And fall colors are a part of that.
That’s why today and tomorrow I will present words describing fall colors, provided by Merriam-Webster dictionary.
The temperatures are much lower these days in south central Kansas. I like that. And my deep breath of relief is enhanced and illustrated, by fall colors.
Now, from Merriam-Webster:
Feuille morte
In French, the term literally means “dead leaf.” In English, feuille morte refers specifically to a brownish-orange or yellowish-brown color. Its use is rare, but it has not been entirely forgotten by English writers.
The synonym philamot can also be used to describe the brownish, yellowish colors in autumn foliage. Speaking of which, feuille is related to the word foliage.
Sepia
In modern English, sepia is best known as the name for the brownish tone that makes photographs look vintage. Sepia hues can be found in an autumn leaf—and in the ocean.
Originally, the word was applied to the cuttlefish, a creature related to the squid and octopus that, when alarmed, releases an inky secretion.
In the 19th century, watercolor painters began using said secretion to create a rich, brown pigment, which became known as sepia. A common description of the color is brownish gray to dark olive brown.
Russet
Being a reddish brown, russet is a popular fall color. Its name is a borrowing of an Anglo-French adjective, meaning “reddish” or “reddish-brown,” that came to designate a coarse, homespun cloth used to make garments. English borrowed the French term for the cloth in the 13th century before using it in its color sense.
Association of the word with rural living led to its use as an adjective meaning “rustic, “homely,” and “simple.”
For example, Shakespeare’s character Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost, frustrated by Rosaline’s literal interpretation of his words, swears off courtly wooing and decides to answer simply in “russet yeas and honest kersey noes.”
In the 17th century, russet was planted in the field of agriculture as a name for pears and apples with rough skins of a russet color, and again in the late-18th century when it became the name of the popular potato.
Amber
Amber can describe the dark orange-yellow color of a floating leaf or a substance found floating in the sea. It is derived from Arabic, anbar, which refers to ambergris, a waxy secretion (there’s that word again) of the sperm whale that is used as a spice and in perfumery.
In English, amber was originally used as the name for this substance, with the name ambergris developing later in French from ambre and gris (“gray”) to differentiate it from the fossilized tree resin type of amber, which is also found around the shore (of the Baltic Sea, largely).
Species of insects and plants have been found as fossils in this yellowish to brownish amber, and deeply colored, translucent pieces are used in making jewelry and ornamental objects. It is from the color of this resin that amber has come to refer to a dark orange yellow.
Gamboge
Gamboge (also spelled camboge) can be used to describe the vivid yellows of autumn. The name of the color refers to a gum resin from southeast Asian trees that is used as a yellow pigment in art and as a purgative in medicine. The resin is orange to brown in color but when pulverized turns bright yellow.
Gamboge is based on New Latin gambogium, an alteration of cambugium, which is either from or akin to the Portuguese name for the country of Cambodia, Camboja. Cambodia also happens to be one of the countries in which the trees producing gamboge are indigenous.
Scarlet
Scarlet was not originally a word for a color but a name for a high-quality cloth, which is believed to have originated in Persia where it was called saqalāt. The word entered English via Anglo-French escarlet—a derivative of the Latin word for the cloth, scarlata—and became associated with bright red colors because the cloth was commonly dyed red.
In the 17th century, scarlet became an adjective to describe a glaringly offensive sin. That sense of the word originated from a biblical verse in the Book of Isaiah: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Its use to describe sexual immorality developed from the image of the harlot “dressed in purple and scarlet” in the Book of Revelation.
Moving on from scarlet, the favored fall color of Ohio State University, home of the mighty Buckeyes, we continue with reddish hues tomorrow. A Crimson Tide, tomorrow, as we continue with fall colors on the Page 7 blog.
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