3 ms·
I find it weird that the article goes on and on about the lack of other words for the colour orange without once mentioning 'ginger'. Which, in the UK at least,
by boffinism 6y ago
I find it weird that the article goes on and on about the lack of other words for the colour orange without once mentioning 'ginger'. Which, in the UK at least, has been used to mean orange, or at least a shade of orange, in the context of hair, for longer (I think) than we've had the word 'orange'.
- Tor3 6y agoTo me "ginger" is a more reddish colour than orange.
- bloak 6y agoThat's a good point, but I've just skimmed through the fantastically detailed entries in the Oxford English Dictionary, which seem to suggest that the word "orange" was used in English around 1400 and was used as a colour in 1532, while the word "ginger" was used in English around 1200 (or earlier) and was used as a colour in 1538. Obviously "earliest citation" is not the same thing as "first use" (though it's amazing how many people seem not to understand that) but it doesn't look as though "ginger" as a colour is much older than "orange" as a colour. On the other hand, the early 16th century is perhaps the earliest point for which we have masses of surviving texts and can therefore get a good idea of which colour names were in use. For earlier periods perhaps there's a good chance that some fairly ordinary words are missing from the record just through bad luck.
- JulianMorrison 6y agoRusset is another old color word
- stolenmerch 6y agoExcept ginger is no more synonymous with orange than tawny or tangerine are, which they do discuss as close color names for orange.