Word for Wednesday: Red

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Happy New Year! 

Our Word for Wednesday theme for January is colours. 

The word colour entered English via Old French and comes from the Latin ‘color’, from the Old Latin ‘colos’ meaning ‘a covering’, from the PIE root ‘kel-’ meaning ‘to conceal’. The word has been used in reference to skin colour since the early-thirteenth century and in reference to pigments and dye since the fourteenth century. 

The spelling colour became the common English spelling from the fourteenth century, but a classical correction made color an alternative from the fifteenth century. Color is now the common American English spelling of this word. 

Our first colour for January is red.

Red is a colour at the end of the colour spectrum, next to orange and opposite violet. It is the colour of blood, rubies, cherries, and tomatoes. The word is sometimes used to describe someone blushing. 

Red comes from the Old English ‘read’, which comes from the Proto-Germanic ‘rauthan’, from the PIE root ‘reudh’. 

What's your favourite colour?


06 Jan 2021
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