# I want to learn the names of all the colors

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-the-names-of-all-the-colors/557487>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 17, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-the-names-of-all-the-colors/557487 "2010-10-17T22:17:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-the-names-of-all-the-colors/557487/41 "2010-10-19T20:31:12Z")

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> [@jayjay](#):
>
> Actually, in **cmyk** ’s context, it would be the presence of all primary pigments rather than the absence of light.

Not to go too far afield here, but isn’t the thing that would make a pigment truly black is that it doesn’t reflect any light?

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**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-the-names-of-all-the-colors/557487/42 "2010-10-19T20:41:16Z")

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> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> Not to go too far afield here, but isn’t the thing that would make a pigment truly black is that it doesn’t reflect any light?

We’re saying the same thing in two different ways. And, to be honest, mine is true only in an idealized world, because, as **cmyk** noted upthread, cyan, magenta and yellow combine into a kind of muddy brownish rather than a nice, all-absorbing black.

My disappointment was great when I discovered that all of my elementary-school knowledge of colors was wrong, or at least not practically accurate…

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**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-the-names-of-all-the-colors/557487/43 "2010-10-19T20:45:03Z")

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> [@Sparky812](#):
>
> > [@FatBaldGuy](#):
> >
> > Walk into a paint store some day and look at the thousands of paint chips they have on display and try to memorize all of those names. Then go to a different paint store, and they will have a completely different set of names.
> 
> Yep, and then every year their “colour designers” will go through and rename a bunch of them to make them more current and fashionable.

Many of those names, in the house paint display, are really _branded product_ names.

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-the-names-of-all-the-colors/557487/44 "2010-10-19T20:56:21Z")

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> [@jayjay](#):
>
> because, as **cmyk** noted upthread, cyan, magenta and yellow combine into a kind of muddy brownish rather than a nice, all-absorbing black.

What am I, chopped liver?

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**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-learn-the-names-of-all-the-colors/557487/45 "2010-10-19T21:27:43Z")

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> [@Derleth](#):
>
> What am I, chopped liver?

:smack:

No, but I’m apparently either blind or cognitively disabled…

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