Thirteen Things I Learned about Colors I was doing some research on the names of colors and came up with some interesting trivia and decided to share. 1) Khaki comes from the Urdu word meaning dusty and is actually a sandy brown with no green in it at all. 2) The word green and the word grow both come from the same Germanic root. 3) The word red is related to the Greek eruthros (and where we get words like erythrocyte, which means red blood cell) as well as to words like russet, ruby, ruddy, and rust. 4) The word puce actually means “flea colored” (from the Latin pulex via French). 5) The word taupe comes from the French word for mole (although wikipedia doesn’t clarify if they mean beauty mark mole or burrow in the earth mole). 6) Beige comes from the French name for a type of woolen fabric usually left undyed 7) Ecru in french means unbleached 8) Maroon comes from the French name for the sweet chestnut, whose fruit is that distinctive brownish-red color. 9) Orange the word for the color was originally narangah the Sanskrit word for the fruit, which became the Persian word narang and the Arabic word naranj, until it became orange in French, in part because the town of Orange in south-eastern France was once the center of the orange trade. 10) Mauve comes from the French word for the mallow plant, whose stems were purple. 11) The word vermillion means “worm colored” because of the mistaken belief that the dye was produced by a worm (it’s an insect). 12) The word scarlet actually refered to a high-quality cloth which may have originated in Persia, and could have been blue or green as well as red (the more common color) “So Will Scarlet of Robin Hood legend may just have been well-dressed.” 13) The fuchsia plant, with its purple-red flowers, commemorates the sixteent-century German botanist Leonhard Fuchs, “though delicately re-pronounced to spare the blushes of the innocent”. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants