07.03.24: painting
the walls in Pompeii
https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/403113575633250/
07.03.24: colour
adjectives
Quō colōre est?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/403219105622697/
07.03.24: dyeing
your hair – Mediaeval style
https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/403378772273397/
07.03.24:
describing colours
https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/403309285613679/
15.07.24: level 1;
adjectives [2]; colour
https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/475373331740607
15.07.24:
follow-up on the post on colour adjectives
https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/479626981315242/
Go into any DIY
store, ask for a tin of green paint and you’ll be faced with a staggering range
of options and a frustrated shop assistant! The Romans didn’t have quite as
vast a choice, but if you type any of the Latin colours into the Wiktionary
search engine, for example https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/albus then you will see at the end of the page a
very detailed list of all possible colours.
Like us, the
Romans interpreted colours in different ways, and it is not always possible to
get a 100% ‘colour match’, but below are the ones that I think would be most
useful. Some of them, especially the brown and the yellow, are difficult to pin
down to exact equivalents, and Roman authors may use them without ever giving a
clear picture of what they have in mind.
“The vagueness of
Latin color terms is due to the origin of colors out of dyestuff and pigments.
The colors of minerals vary, and dyes produce different effects according to
the mode of preparation and the materials dyed. Their applications have to be
guessed from literary sources, which for the most part are incidental and
vague. Color names used by poets tend to be applied metaphorically or
indefinitely.” (Traupman)
[i]
albus, alba,
album: the general word for white; ‘matt’ white (e.g. white paint on a
plaster wall)
candidus,
candida, candidum: ‘gloss’ white; shining white; ‘canditates’
< candidātī, the great and the good strutting their stuff around Rome
clothed in shining white, urine-laundered togas who are up for election!
18.07.24: level 1;
bright white (and purple) politicians
https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/475894441688496/
[ii]
caeruleus,
caerulea, caeruleum: blue, but referred to the sky or the
blue-green colour of the sea; English derivative: cerulean or caerulean a hue
of blue ranging from a light azure blue to a more intense sky blue
[iii] A superb
example of the subtlety of colour in English is in the Sondheim musical
“Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”:
“I must make you
into a credible wigmaker—and quickly.
There's tawny,
and there's golden saffron
There's flaxen,
and there's blonde
There's coarse and
fine
There's straight
and curly
There's gray,
there's white
There's ash,
there's pearly
There's corn-yellow
Buff and ochre and
Straw and apricot...
(1)
cānus, cāna,
cānum: grey (of hair)
cinereus,
cinerea, cinereum: grey; ashen-colour
(2)
aureus,
aurea, aureum: gold(en); gold-coloured; made of gold
flāvus,
flāva, flāvum: (bright) yellow
lūteus,
lūtea, lūteum: yellow; saffron-coloured
fuscus,
fusca, fuscum: ‘dark’; swarthy (of complexion); brown
bruneus, brunea,
bruneum (Late / Mediaeval): brown
castaneus, castanea,
castaneum: chesnut brown
(3)
rutilus, rutilus, rutilus: red; red (of hair)
rūfus, rūfa,
rūfum: red (of hair); ruddy (complexion)
ruber, rubra,
rubrum: red (the red of ochre); ruddy
[iv]
purpureus,
purpurea, purpureum: purple; see the link above ‘bright white
(and purple) politicians’
[v]
roseus,
rosea, roseum: pink
[vi]
prasinus,
prasina, prasinum: leek green; light green
viridis,
viride: green (see the
next post)
[vii]
āter, ātra,
ātrum: ‘matt’ black; dull black
niger, nigra,
nigrum: ‘gloss’ black; shining black
