# 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:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/41 "2008-02-05T11:01:39Z")
Peridot. ---
**Author:** ![Radegast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@Radegast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Radegast)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/42 "2008-02-05T11:21:18Z")
[QUOTE=dtilque] Another word for light blue is **cerulean**. But it’s used almost exclusively to refer to the color of the sky. Lime is actually a yellow green – if you just a light green, try **celadon**. Pretty obscure word; it’s the name of a glaze for pottery but can also be used for the color of the glaze which is a light green. BTW, Korean doesn’t have a basic color word for pink. It has the other ten, though. [/QUOTE] I seem to remember, from my days learning Korean and living there, that there isn’t really a distinction made between blue and green in the Korean language. This cite seems to confirm that: [Blue–green distinction in language - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distinguishing_blue_from_green_in_language) ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/43 "2008-02-05T11:54:15Z")
[QUOTE=Radegast] I seem to remember, from my days learning Korean and living there, that there isn’t really a distinction made between blue and green in the Korean language. This cite seems to confirm that: [Blue–green distinction in language - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distinguishing_blue_from_green_in_language) [/QUOTE] Japanese was the same. The word 青 ([ao](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ao_%28color%29) ) used to encompass blue and green. They now have a separate word for green (midori, for all you drinkers out there). ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/44 "2008-02-05T12:31:00Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] Peridot. [/QUOTE] Personal insults should be kept in the pit. 😉 Thinking about colour in a functional way, back when words like pink were entering our language people wouldn’t sit around and make up colours and names like they do now. I’d hazard a guess that there’s a need for the colour pink that doesn’t exist with other shades of the main colours. If a person was looking a bit blue or a bit green the exact shade wouldn’t matter. But there’s a big difference between a person looking pink and looking red. The prevalence of pink in nature could be the reason for the distinction. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/45 "2008-02-05T13:22:13Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] Peridot. [/QUOTE] Eh? Is this a whoosh? Peridot is green. As to the OP - it’s strange to me to puzzle why English has a word for pink (or orange), when, as has been pointed out, it hasn’t always. Shakespeare had no word for the shade. So clearly English accumulates more colour words over time - soon enough, “aqua” & “avocado” will be accepted words. Just wait for the 2020s 50s revival. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/46 "2008-02-05T13:40:26Z")
Peach is accepted as “orange & white.” ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/47 "2008-02-05T13:46:12Z")
Strangely, my dictionary suggests that the colour term “pink” might not come from the flower, but from a contraction of “pinkeye”, which is another name for conjunctivitis, and comes from the Dutch “_pinck oogen_” meaning “small eyes”. That seems pretty unlikely to me, but who am I to argue with the word wonks at Collins? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/48 "2008-02-05T13:58:05Z")
[QUOTE=Celyn] 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. [/QUOTE] Not true. Both the shears and the flower are named from the verb “to pink”, which means to decorate with a perforated pattern. Re my last post, I’m not sure if I’m misinterpreting the dictionary and “pinkeye” was also an earlier name for the flower. It only gives the eye disease meaning for pinkeye, but [World Wide Words](http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/colour.htm) seems to think “pinkeye” might have been applied to the flower too. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/49 "2008-02-05T14:59:05Z")
According to Cecil’s column, “blue” is a relative latecomer in most languages’ development. That surprises me. Given the omnipresence of sea and (even more so) sky, you’d think it would develop earlier as a common color designation. ---
**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, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/50 "2008-02-05T16:11:12Z")
[QUOTE=Radegast] \<…\>there isn’t really a distinction made between blue and green in the Korean language. [/QUOTE] And sadly, now that I’m 47, there isn’t really a distinction between blue and green when I’m in dim light. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/51 "2008-02-05T17:01:08Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] Does _light blue_ strike you as being different from _blue_? If so, then the entire term is semantically one unit. [/QUOTE] If I have something light blue and I ask a random person what color it is, I’ll fairly likely get the answers “blue” and “light blue”. If I have something pink and ask what color it is, it will be rare that I get the answer “red”. Similarly, if I have a few lightly colored objects and I say “Hand me the blue one”, I’ll get the light blue one the first go with no comment. If I say “Hand me the red one”, the person will probably hesitate briefly and may even ask “You mean the pink one?” If i have a light blue and a standard blue object, and I ask for the light blue one, I’ll get light blue. If I ask for the blue one, I’ll get asked, “light blue or dark blue?” If I have a pink object and a red object, they’ll be no confusion when I ask for the red one. Light blue is seen as a subset of blue, but pink is generally not thought of as a subset to red. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/52 "2008-02-05T21:36:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Another thought…Crayola’s idea of Blue and Red aren’t even close to Cyan and Magenta. As a child, I always wondered why Yellow and Blue crayons didn’t mix to make a very good Green. The reason that yellow and blue crayons don’t mix to make a very good green is that crayons don’t mix well, period. But blue paint and yellow paint will make a perfectly acceptable green paint. Red, yellow, and blue make a pretty good basis for a color space, and though the space doesn’t have quite as much volume as CMY space, it has the advantage that the “primary colors” line up with certain aspects of human visual processing. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/53 "2008-02-06T20:34:52Z")
If I remember correctly, the word blue originally referred to light blue rather than the shade we call blue today. And previous to that it referred to any light color such as a pale yellow. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/54 "2008-02-07T00:32:49Z")
The same way pink isn’t light red, i’d say the color you’re really referring to is ‘baby blue.’ This is the one that’s referred to by the russian word ‘galooboy’. (The emphasis is on the first syllable. It’s not a boy who’s galoo. However, if a boy is galooboy, then it does mean he’s gay.) Anyway, the distinction in a Russian person’s mind between baby blue and blue is pretty strong, more than for an English-speaking person. The word ‘galooboy’ in Russian leads russians to notice the color more often. But consider this: ’ English has ‘aqua’, and that’s a very distinct color, among a number of others. In Russian these would just be called ‘galooboy’ without a second thought. So who really appreciates colors more, Russians or English-speakers? ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/55 "2008-02-07T02:59:15Z")
Here’s something to consider while looking at this graph: [File:Cone-response-en.png - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cone-response.png) At the red end of the spectrum, red only activates the one type of cone, and doesn’t activate the rods at all. By adding white to the mix, you are actually activating a different set of cones, plus the rods. (This is also why red light won’t disrupt your night vision). OTOH, adding white to blue or green will just increase the level of activity, without actually making new sensors activate. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/56 "2008-02-07T03:18:50Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble] Shakespeare had no word for the shade. [/QUOTE] …I just did a quick leaf-through of the texts and you’re right. That is so bizarre. 😕 Where did you learn that? [/trying not to hijack too much, I promise] ---
**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/57 "2008-02-07T07:25:07Z")
I seems that names for colors are generated culturally. I submit that in the future “aqua” and “lime” and “salmon” will be just as common as “pink” is today. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-english-have-a-word-for-pink-but-not-for-light-blue-light-green-etc/436290/58 "2008-02-07T08:42:19Z")
[QUOTE=Kythereia] …I just did a quick leaf-through of the texts and you’re right. That is so bizarre. 😕 Where did you learn that? [/trying not to hijack too much, I promise] [/QUOTE] Well, the [online etymology dictionary](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pink) has the first attestation for 1733 (with “pink-coloured” from 1681). Shakespeare _does_ use the word, but only in the superlative/finest example meaning: “Mercutio: Nay, I am the very pinck of curtesie,” Rom. & Jul. II.iv.61 I got interested in the etymology of “pink” a few years ago, when I set out to make myself a “pinked” i.e. pattern-punched leather jerkin for the SCA. The flower-before-colour factlet came up then. [Previous 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)