# Why does being cowardly= yellow?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-being-cowardly-yellow/106201>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 29, 2002, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-being-cowardly-yellow/106201 "2002-04-29T02:05:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-being-cowardly-yellow/106201/1 "2002-04-29T02:05:32Z")

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Yellow coward? Yellow-bellied? Where does this come from?

In the pink!

- Jinx

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**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-being-cowardly-yellow/106201/2 "2002-04-29T02:14:44Z")

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Yellow meaning “cowardly” was originally an American colloquialism, which the OED dates to the mid-19th century. Yellow-bellied didn’t arrive on the scene until the 1920s. Alas, there’s no indication why yellow was chosen.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-being-cowardly-yellow/106201/3 "2002-04-29T02:49:36Z")

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Yellow-belly, applied as an epithet in regards to Mexicans is from 1842(Mathews).

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**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-being-cowardly-yellow/106201/4 "2002-04-29T11:52:14Z")

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[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/myellowbellied.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/myellowbellied.html)

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**Author:** ![Big\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Big\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Sam)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-being-cowardly-yellow/106201/5 "2002-04-29T12:39:36Z")

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Hmm… and all this time I thought it was because cowards usually piss their pants before they run away.

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**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-being-cowardly-yellow/106201/6 "2002-04-29T14:52:18Z")

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[ul][li] “He turned blue” means the guy is cold or[/li][li] “He is blue” means the guy is unhappy[/li][li] “He is green with envy” self-explainatory[/li][li] “He turned red” means the guy blushed or[/li][li] “He turned red” means the guy just ate a hot pepper[/li][li] “He is brown” means the guy got a good tan[/li]…:rolleyes:…

So most of the colors have therefore been taken. Of those left (orange, purple and yellow) yellow is the only one that is a prime color. So by the process of illimination a coward just has to be **YELLOW** :wally [/ul]

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-being-cowardly-yellow/106201/7 "2002-04-29T20:57:52Z")

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There was a thread on this in “Comments About Staff Reports”:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83560](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83560)