Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Hue and why?
15 colour facts...
Brown, by a long way in Englishspeaking countries. It is the fourth most common surname in America, Australia and New Zealand and the fifth most common in Canada and Britain. Brown is followed by White, and then
Green, Gray/grey, Black, Scarlet and Blue. The surnames Reid, Read, Reed and Reade all come from the Old English ‘Red’. such as ‘blue-sky thinking’ might suggest otherwise. The idea they are watered-down reds goes back to a story in Time magazine in 1925, which mentioned “parlour-pink” socialists who sympathised with the communism of the Soviet Union, but did nothing about it. A contemporary equivalent would be “Champagne socialists”. The term was coined in the late 19th Century when most US manual workers wore shirts with blue, indigo-dyed collars, which could hold more dirt than white ones, without being noticed. Bubonic plague was called the “Black Death” as it left dark patches under the skin, caused by bleeding, then parts of the body would die and turn black – necrosis. By the time victims expired, they were often black and disfigured. The disease was carried by black rats and spread by fleas, something not understood at the time.
The term “pink tax”, which started in France in 2014, went viral when it was found that globally women paid more for the same products and services than men, including razors. A UK study said they paid double to dry-clean collars and cuffs. Car repairs and haircuts and underwear were also said to be marked up. These originated in 509BC when Roman calendars marked important days in red. This practice was revived in medieval Europe. Later the term became associated with any day that was significant. It means annoyed. Starting as an agricultural term meaning “ruined”, it became popular more than 100 years ago as an army term for being fed-up, as a change to “brassed-off” used by servants told to polish the brass. Several views on this. In 1781, a history of Connecticut referred to the “blue laws”of the Puritans, which could have prompted the link between blue and sexual behaviour. Others theories are that prostitutes in jail dressed in blue and some striptease acts had blue lights. In the mythology of several parts of the world, the language of birds and beasts (and sometimes of gods) is known as the “green language”, and those mystics with the power to understand it were seen as particularly wise.
The Story of Colour: An Exploration of the
Hidden Messages of the Spectrum by
Gavin Evans. £20 in hardback. (Michael
O’mara Books)