# Why does English have a word for pink, but not for light blue, light green, etc.? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290 "2008-02-04T23:13:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/1 "2008-02-04T23:13:02Z")
Mix blue and white and you get…light blue, or maybe baby blue, or sky blue. Mix green and white and you get pale green, or light green. Mix red and white and you get pink. Apparently “pink” is a universal enough term in English to be considered [one of our basic color terms](http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00055EE3-4530-1052-853083414B7F0000). There are single-word terms for some varieties of lighter colors – lime is a lighter shade of green, azure is a lighter blue. But none of those words are as universally understood (in English) as pink. Why, in English, are pale versions of red given the name “pink,” while none of the other primary or secondary colors have a similarly common single-word name? “Light red” or “pale red” are unusual terms, at best, but “light blue” and “pale green” are common. (Gray, I suppose, is the exception – black plus white doesn’t equal pale black.) What makes pink so special among speakers of English? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/2 "2008-02-04T23:21:42Z")
Pink (the colour) is named after the flowers called ‘pinks’ (small carnation-like things), which are often that hue. They in turn are named ‘pinks’ because the edges of the petals are ‘pinked’ - or frilled. Before this happened to our language, the colour pink would be described as ‘white flushed with rose’ or something like that. So we do have lots of colours named in that way - aqua, turqouise, peach, tangerine, salmon, etc… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/3 "2008-02-04T23:23:47Z")
As to why it’s as popular as some of the primaries? - it’s common in nature and it’s a popular colour for man-made things. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/4 "2008-02-04T23:34:27Z")
The ancient Greeks didn’t even have a word for blue, so they say. Stinks of urban legend to me, but the usual sources of rebuttal don’t seem to have much to say on that precise question. [World Wide Words](http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/colour.htm) does have an interesting page on the etymology of names of colours, naturally. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/5 "2008-02-04T23:48:59Z")
[The Master speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_168b.html) > [@Cecil Adams](#): > > More recent research, however, suggests that color terminology may not be so arbitrary after all. Brent Berlin and Paul Kay (Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution, 1969), to whom Cecil is indebted for much of the preceding discussion, suggest that there is a remarkable degree of uniformity in the way different cultures assign color names. In a study of 98 languages from a variety of linguistic families, they found the following “rules” seem to apply: > > 1. All languages contain terms for white and black. > > 2. If a language contains three terms, then it contains a term for red. > > 3. If a language contains four terms, then it contains a term for either green or yellow (but not both). > > 4. If a language contains five terms, then it contains terms for both green and yellow. > > 5. If a language contains six terms, then it contains a term for blue. > > 6. If a language contains seven terms, then it contains a term for brown. > > 7. If a language contains eight or more terms, then it contains a term for purple, pink, orange, grey, or some combination of these. ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/6 "2008-02-05T00:28:55Z")
Yes. I know that English (thanks to generations of catalog copywriters, if nothing else) has many, many, many words for different shades of colors–ecru, cerulean, Liz Taylor violet, etc. But “pink” is such a fundamental word in the language that it’s considered one of our 11 basic color terms: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, orange, purple, gray and…pink! Salmon is not on that list. Nor is aqua, nor turquise, nor camel, nor lilac. My question isn’t “where did we get the word pink” but “why does light red get a special, universal term whereas light blue and light green don’t.” But Cecil’s answer does suggest that it’s not a phenomenon limited to English. In which case it’s a more universal question: why do languages include a term for light red before they include a term for light green or light yellow? ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/7 "2008-02-05T00:35:27Z")
Something that describes the color of a vagina should have its own word. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/8 "2008-02-05T00:38:30Z")
[QUOTE=Interrobang!?] Yes. I know that English (thanks to generations of catalog copywriters, if nothing else) has many, many, many words for different shades of colors–ecru, cerulean, Liz Taylor violet, etc. But “pink” is such a fundamental word in the language that it’s considered one of our 11 basic color terms: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, orange, purple, gray and…pink! Salmon is not on that list. Nor is aqua, nor turquise, nor camel, nor lilac. My question isn’t “where did we get the word pink” but “why does light red get a special, universal term whereas light blue and light green don’t.” [/QUOTE] Partly because there’s a heck of a lot of it about. Also, we perceive it as a distinct colour - pink, not light red. That perception is possibly largely cultural, but now it’s here, it’s taken over. Pink is not light red - it’s **pink** (probably closer to light magenta) I realise this boils down to pretty much ‘that’s just the way things are’, but sometimes, there isn’t going to be a satisfying answer - The language developed naturally and haphazardly - so some of it is just the luck of the draw, but if there was a general need for a common term for a particular shade of light blue, then I suspect we would have developed such a term. ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/9 "2008-02-05T00:43:26Z")
[QUOTE=Omegaman] Something that describes the color of a vagina should have its own word. [/QUOTE] Aubvagine? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/10 "2008-02-05T00:50:14Z")
I’d guess it was the big emotional difference between blood-angry-throbbing red and tame little pink. There’s not much emotional difference between a light and dark blue. Maybe navy starts to look military, but that’s because it’s getting close to black. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/11 "2008-02-05T00:56:22Z")
[QUOTE=Interrobang!?] But “pink” is such a fundamental word in the language that it’s considered one of our 11 basic color terms… [/QUOTE] By whom? ---
**Author:** ![ArmenE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ArmenE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArmenE)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/12 "2008-02-05T01:10:03Z")
Russian has a word for light blue, ‘goluboy’. It considered to be one of the ‘main colors’, like yellow or red, not like salmon or fuchsia or whatnot ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/13 "2008-02-05T01:38:29Z")
[QUOTE=Interrobang!?] Mix blue and white and you get…light blue, or maybe baby blue, or sky blue. Mix green and white and you get pale green, or light green. Mix red and white and you get pink. [/QUOTE] That’s what I thought until I started using computer paint programs. Then I learned that you start with white and subtract just a little yellow, magenta and cyan respectively. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/14 "2008-02-05T01:42:29Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] That’s what I thought until I started using computer paint programs. Then I learned that you start with white and subtract just a little yellow, magenta and cyan respectively. 😛 [/QUOTE] My teacher told us that when I was little. “The primary colors are yellow, magenta, and cyan… however crayola disagrees and since we’re using they’re products they shall hereby be referred to as yellow red and blue.” ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/15 "2008-02-05T01:42:56Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] That’s what I thought until I started using computer paint programs. Then I learned that you start with white and subtract just a little yellow, magenta and cyan respectively. 😛 [/QUOTE] My teacher told us that when I was little. “The primary colors are yellow, magenta, and cyan… however crayola disagrees and since we’re using their products they shall hereby be referred to as yellow red and blue.” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/16 "2008-02-05T01:45:10Z")
Well, repetition is necessary for young children. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/17 "2008-02-05T01:49:25Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] By whom? [/QUOTE] [Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, apparently.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Color_Terms:_Their_Universality_and_Evolution) Whoever the heck they are. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/18 "2008-02-05T02:10:11Z")
[QUOTE=Interrobang!?] … What makes pink so special among speakers of English? [/QUOTE] Possibly because calling it “pink” is a lot easier and shorter than calling it “utterly nasty colour that is horribly inflicted upon young daughters and is unpleasant and hateful to the eye”? And yes, as has been said, it does come from the name of the flower. Trivia bit - just because I was once amazed to find this - the “pinking shears” used in dressmaking _etc_. are also named after the flower, apparently because of the jagged looking edges thereof. It may not impress anyone else, but it came as a surprise to me. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/19 "2008-02-05T02:36:52Z")
It’s so you can describe your meat preference to the cook. I want the meat pink in the middle, or not. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/20 "2008-02-05T02:51:51Z")
Speaking as a baker I know that when we go to color icings there are many, many shades of all the primary and secondary colors available. And red is looked on as distinct from pink. It simply looks different from red that has been lightened with white. That’s also the way it’s sold. There are several types of red, but pink is on it’s own, and is not named as a variety of red. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290.md?page=2)