Say What

You See

SAY
WHAT
YOU SEE

A gentle reminder of the connection between

the words we use and the colours we see

Eleanor Maclure

Introduction

Since we developed the use of language, we have borrowed

words from things in the world around us to describe the colours
that we see. Even what we now think of as abstract colour terms
like black, originally referred to something else like night.
The word for pink originally came from flowers known as pinks
(from the genus Dianthus) due to their frilled petals relation to the
14th century verb to pink, still used today in the term pinking
sheers. Our language has evolved dramatically since then and, as
with so many words, the ties to its origin have virtually been lost.
Far removed from its beginnings, the word pink is now widely
understood as referring to the rosy band of hues ranging from
salmon to magenta.
Of the eleven basic colour terms that we have in English, only
orange is still regarded as descriptive, attributed to the hue of
a ripe orange. Originally derived from Sanskrit, the word first
appeared in English, in the 14th century, after the Persian and
Arabic form, nranj, was adopted by European languages.
Compared to the millions of hues our eyes can detect, our
colour vocabulary is startlingly limited. Despite appearing to be
well defined and understood, our basic colour terms are open
to a surprising amount of interpretation and can be painfully
imprecise, failing to truly capture the world we see. English has
evolved to include thousands of terms for colours, and yet only a
tiny percentage of these exist as abstract terms. Most are reappropriated from tangible things like lemons and lavender, as an
attempt to articulate even a fraction of the colours we experience.
This book does not aim to present a true reproduction of the
colours of objects. Rather it is a visual reminder of where some
of our words for colours come from, their inherently descriptive
nature and their undeniable connection to the often mundane
objects in the world around us.

Say What
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List of Images

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CREAM
ALMOND
SAND
OATMEAL
GINGER
CHAMPAGNE
SULPHUR
PRIMROSE
LEMON
MUSTARD
GOLD
HONEY
APRICOT
AMBER
ORANGE
RUST
MARIGOLD
PEACH
SHELL
EGGSHELL
SALMON
BRICK
COPPER
TERRACOTTA
PAPRIKA
TOMATO
MELON
RASPBERRY
BERRY
FUCHSIA
ROSE
PLUM
CHERRY
WINE

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THISTLE
HEATHER
AUBERGINE
GRAPE
AMETHYST
LAVENDER
VIOLET
BLUEBERRY
SLATE
TURQUOISE
JADE
AQUAMARINE
SAGE
KIWI
MINT
AVOCADO
LIME
PISTACHIO
MOSS
OLIVE
STONE
BISCUIT
CINNAMON
WALNUT
TOFFEE
CARAMEL
CHESTNUT
CHOCOLATE
COCOA
COFFEE
CHARCOAL
MUSHROOM
OYSTER