by Kevin Burton
Autumn is the time of year when the greenery explodes into myriad colors. It’s a feast for the eyes, an art show by God, defying description.
Meriam-Webster is in the business of descriptions, so the dictionary is going to have its say. Yesterday we went with them, beginning a list of words that describe fall colors. Below we finish that list, going places Crayola can’t take you:
Crimson and Carmine
Crimson and carmine, words for deep reds, are doublets from the same Arabic source. The color crimson is a deep purplish red that is found in a dye made from pulverized kermes, or the dried bodies of insects. The name of the color and of the insect has been traced back to qirmiz, the Arabic name for the insect. The word crimson entered English in the 15th century via Old Spanish cremesín.
In the 18th century, carmine arrived in English via French as a synonym of crimson. The French derivative is from Medieval Latin carminium, which has also been traced to Arabic qirmiz. The Latin form was more than likely influenced by minium, which refers to an artificial red sulfide once used as a pigment.
Like scarlet, crimson has figurative use associated with sin that originated in the Book of Isaiah via a continuation of the verse quoted in yesterday’s article: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” In particular, crimson has come to describe acts of bloodshed. William Shakespeare used the word with such connotation in Richard II:
Considering this bloody figurative sense of crimson and the fact that crimson and carmine are connected to a dye made from dead insects, it seems applicable to use both words during the spookiest time of the year.
Maroon
Maroon, as the name for a dark red color, derives from French marron, which is the Spanish name for a chestnut. The earliest examples in English of the word refer to the reddish-brown nut, with the color sense dating from the late-18th century.
Before becoming a color name, maroon referred to a loud firework. Supposedly, people associated the noise of a chestnut bursting in a fire to an exploding firework. Most notably, maroons were used during World War I as a warning to take cover because of an approaching air raid.
The other maroon in the English language, referring to a stranded person, is suspected of being derived from French maron, meaning “fugitive.”
Auburn
Prior to the 16th century, auburn would not have been an ideal word to describe an autumn color. It derives ultimately from the Latin word albus, meaning “white,” and originally designated a yellowish or brownish white color.
However, by the 16th century, the word’s meaning shifted to goldish and reddish shades of brown. It seems variant spellings of the word, such as abrune, abroun, and abrown, that resembled Middle English brun, meaning “brown,” brought on the color change.
Lurid
The ghastly history of lurid makes it a fitting adjective for dying pale-yellow leaves. It is from luridus, the Latin word for such a color, and in the 17th century, it was used to describe the pale yellowish color of diseased or bruised skin.
Bruises tend to have a contrast of light and dark color, and such interplay of color may have influenced the word’s sense referring to an eerie, red, fiery glow as seen through smoke or cloud.
The unearthliness of things said to be lurid more than likely led to the word’s figurative use for things shocking and sensational, like lurid headlines or the lurid details of a murder.
Carnelian and Cornelian
Carnelian can be used to describe leaves having a reddish-orange or brownish-red color, like the colors often found in the quartz by that name.
Carnelian is an alteration of cornelian that is based on Latin carn-, meaning “flesh,” in reference to the flesh-red color that some perceive in the mineral. Cornelian itself is believed to derive from French cornele, the name for the cornel cherry, and so named because of its resemblance in color to the fruit.
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