Comment on I need an adult

Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

• Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  I don’t know if that’s true or not, though some color words are definitely older than others, so I can imagine it. Do you have a source?

  I’m reminded of how the word “orange” is relatively recent, and named after the fruit. Ever wonder why people with orange hair are called “redheads”? From the links, “redhead” arose in the 1200s, while “orange” wasn’t used to describe color under the 1500s. So “red” was the closest color descriptor at the time “redhead” was coined.

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  • mrsemi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    What’s wild to me is that people didn’t used to distinguish blue from green

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  • Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    According to OED it first appears in old english which IIRC is dated between 900 and 1500 AD

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    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Not to nitpick, just a clarification - it was Old English until 1066, then it was Middle English until the 1400s.

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