From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Green |
|
|
| — Spectral coordinates — |
| Wavelength |
520–570 nm |
| — Common connotations — |
| nature, growth, hope, youth, sickness, health, Islam, spring, Saint Patrick's Day, money (US), and envy[1][2][3] |
|
— Color coordinates — |
| Hex triplet |
#008000 (HTML/CSS)
#00FF00 (X11) |
| sRGBB |
(r, g, b) |
(0, 128~255, 0) |
| HSV |
(h, s, v) |
(120°, 100%, 50~100%) |
| Source |
HTML/CSS[4]
X11 color names[5] |
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
|
|
The word
green is closely related to the
Old English verb
growan, “to grow”. It is used to describe plants or the
ocean. Sometimes it can also describe someone who is inexperienced, jealous, or sick. In the United States of America,
green is a
slang term for money, among other things. Several colloquialisms have derived from these meanings, such as “green around the gills”, a phrase used to describe a person who looks ill.
Several
minerals have a green color, including
emerald, which is colored green by its
chromium content. Animals such as frogs, lizards, and other reptiles and amphibians, fish, insects, and birds, appear green because of a mixture of layers of blue and green coloring on their
skin. By far the largest contributor to green in nature is
chlorophyll, the chemical by which plants
photosynthesize. Many creatures have adapted to their green environments by taking on a green hue themselves as
camouflage.
Culturally, green has broad and sometimes contradictory meanings. In some cultures, green symbolizes hope and growth, while in others, it is associated with death, sickness,
envy, or the
devil. The most common associations, however, are found in its ties to nature. For example,
Islam venerates the color, as it expects paradise to be full of lush greenery. Green is also associated with regeneration, fertility and rebirth for its connections to nature. Recent political groups have taken on the color as symbol of environmental protection and social justice, and consider themselves part of the
Green movement, some naming themselves
Green parties. This has led to similar campaigns in advertising, as companies have sold green, or
environmentally friendly, products.
Etymology and definitions
The etymology of the word "green" is related to
nature and growth.
The word
green comes from the
Old English word
grene, or, in its older form,
groeni. This adjective is closely related to the Old English verb
growan (“to grow”) and goes back into Western Germanic and
Scandinavian languages.
[7] The first recorded use of
green as a color name in
English was in
700.
[8]Many Asian languages have no word
distinguishing blue from green, although recently published dictionaries do make the distinction.
[9] The
Thai word เขียว besides meaning "green" also means "rank" and "smelly" and holds other unpleasant associations.
[10] In
Japanese, despite the existence of a word in the modern language meaning "green", the color is sometimes described as blue
(青, Ao?), as in
blue traffic light (青信号, Ao shingō?) and
blue leaves (青葉, Aoba?), reflecting the absence of a word meaning "green" in old Japanese.
In
Persian, the word for green is سبز
sabz, but this word can also mean "black" or "dark". In Persian erotic poetry, dark-skinned women are addressed as "green," as in phrases like سبز گندم گون
sabz-gandom-gun (literally "green wheat colored") or سبز مليح
sabz-malih ("a green beauty").
[11] Similarly, in
Sudanese Arabic, dark-skinned people are described as أخضر
akhḍar 'green', instead of black.
[12]
In science
Color vision and colorimetry
Chlorophyll is responsible for the green color in plants.
The
perception of green is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a
wavelength of roughly 520–570
nm.
[13] Green is considered one of the
additive primary colors, along with red and blue. The additive color model defines colors emitted from a light source. For example, a mixture of green, red, and blue light will produce white light. In
subtractive color mixtures, which deals with colors found in pigments and dyes, green is created by mixing yellow and blue. On the
HSV color wheel, the
complement of green is
magenta; that is, a color corresponding to an equal mixture of
red and
blue light (one of the
purples). On a traditional color wheel, based on subtractive color, the complementary color to green is considered to be
red.
[6]The sensitivity of the dark-adapted human eye is greatest at about 507 nm, a blue-green color, while the light-adapted eye is most sensitive about 555 nm, a slightly yellowish green.
[14] Human eyes have color receptors known as
cone cells, of which there are three types. In some cases, one is missing or faulty, which can cause
color blindness, including the common inability to distinguish red and yellow from green, known as
deuteranopia or red–green color blindness.
[15] Green is restful to the eye. Studies show that a green environment can reduce fatigue.
[16]In minerals and chemistry
Many minerals provide
pigments which have been used in green paints and dyes over the centuries. Pigments, in this case, are minerals which reflect the color green, rather that emitting it through
luminescent or
phosphorescent qualities. The large number of green pigments makes it impossible to mention them all. Among the more notable green minerals, however is the
emerald, which is colored green by trace amounts of
chromium and sometimes
vanadium.
[17] Chromium(III) oxide (Cr
2O
3), is called
chrome green, also called
viridian or institutional green when used as a pigment.
[18] For many years, the source of
amazonite's color was a mystery. Widely thought to have been due to
copper because copper compounds often have blue and green colors, the blue-green color is likely to be derived from small quantities of
lead and water in the
feldspar.
[19] Copper is the source of the green color in
malachite pigments, chemically known as basic copper(II) carbonate.
[20] Early painters would also use copper in the form of
verdigris mixed with
wax and
turpentine to create green pigmentation in paints.
[21] Mixtures of oxidized
cobalt and
zinc were also used to create green paints as early as the 18th century.
[22] A more complete list of green minerals and pigments can be seen
here.
[23]In biology
Frogs often appear green because light reflects off of a
blue underlayer of chemicals and through a yellow upperlayer, filtering the light to be primarily green.
Green is common in nature, as many plants are green because of a complex chemical known as
chlorophyll which is involved in
photosynthesis.
[15] Animals typically use the color green as
camouflage, blending in with the chlorophyll green of the surrounding environment.
[15] Green animals include, especially,
amphibians,
reptiles, and some
fish,
birds and
insects. Most fish, reptiles, amphibians, and birds appear green because of a reflection of blue light coming through an over-layer of yellow pigment. Perception of color can also be affected by the surrounding environment. For example, broadleaf forests typically have a yellow-green light about them as the trees filter the light. Turacoverdin is one chemical which can cause a green hue in birds, especially.
[15] Invertebrates such as insects or mollusks often display green colors because of
porphyrin pigments, sometimes caused by diet. This can causes their feces to look green as well. Other chemicals which generally contribute to greenness among organisms are
flavins (lychochromes) and hemanovadin.
[15] Humans have imitated this by wearing green clothing as a camouflage in military and other fields. Substances that may impart a greenish hue to one's skin include
biliverdin, the green
pigment in
bile, and
ceruloplasmin, a
protein that carries
copper ions in
chelation.
In culture
Nature
In many folklores and literatures, green has traditionally been used to symbolize nature and its embodied attributes, namely those of life, fertility, and rebirth. Green was symbolic of resurrection and immortality in
Ancient Egypt; the god
Osiris was depicted as green-skinned.
[29] It is often used to describe foliage and the sea, and has become a symbol of
environmentalism. Someone who works well with plants is said to have a
green thumb or
green fingers, and the word
greenhorn refers to an inexperienced person.
[2] A company is said to be
greenwashing if they advertise positive environmental practices to cover up environmental destruction.
[30] Green is used to describe anyone young, inexperienced, or gullible (probably by analogy to unripe, i.e. unready or immature, fruit).
[1] Green was the traditional color worn by hunters in the 19th century particularly the shade called
hunter green. In the 20th century most hunters began wearing the color
olive drab, a shade of green, instead of hunter green.
[31]Love and lust
Stories of the
medieval period further portray it as representing love
[32] and the base, natural desires of man.
[33] In Persian and Sudanese poetry, dark-skinned women, called "green" women may be eroticized.
[12] The Chinese term for
cuckold is "to wear a green hat."
[34] It is because of this that it is extremely rare to see any Chinese man wearing a green hat.
[35] Green is also used to describe jealousy and envy.
[1]Death, decay, and evil
Green is also known to have signified
witchcraft, devilry and evil for its association with
faeries and spirits of early
English folklore. It also had an association with decay and toxicity.
[36] Actor
Bela Lugosi wore green-hued makeup for the role of
Dracula in the 1927–28 Broadway stage production.
[37] A green tinge in the skin is sometimes associated with nausea and sickness.
[38] A physically-ill person is said to look
green around the gills.
[2] The color, when combined with gold, is seen as representing the fading of youth.
[39] In the
Celtic tradition, green was avoided in clothing for its superstitious association with misfortune and death.
[40][41] Green is thought to be an unlucky color in British and British-derived cultures,
[42] where green cars, wedding dresses, and theater costumes are all the objects of superstition.
[43] Spider-Man villains were often colored green to represent a contrast to the hero's red.
[44] In some
Far East cultures the color green is often used as a symbol of sickness and/or nausea;
[45]Prosperity
The United States one dollar note, like all other American dollar bills, is historically green.
In areas that use the
U.S. Dollar as currency, green carries a connotation of money, wealth, and
capitalism, because green is the color of United States
banknotes, giving rise to the slang term
greenback for
cash.
[1] One of the more notable uses of this meaning is found in
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In this story is the
Emerald City, where everyone wears tinted glasses which make everything look green. According to
the populist interpretation of the story, the city’s color is used by the author,
L. Frank Baum, to illustrate the financial system of America in his day, as he lived in a time when America was debating the use of paper money versus gold.
[46] Green can communicate safety to proceed, as in
traffic lights.
[2] In China, green is associated with the east, with sunrise, and with life and growth.
[47] In Thailand, the color green is consider
auspicious for those born on a Wednesday day (light green for those born at night .)
[48]Nationality and politics
Several countries use green on their flags for symbolic or cultural reasons. Green, for example is one of the three colors (along with red and black, or red and gold) of
Pan-Africanism. Several African countries thus use the color on their flags, including South Africa,
Ghana,
Senegal,
Mali,
Ethiopia,
Togo,
Guinea,
Benin, and
Zimbabwe. The
Pan-African colors are borrowed from the
Ethiopian flag, one of the oldest independent African countries. Green in these cases represents the natural richness of Africa.
[49]Many flags of the
Islamic world are green, as the color is considered sacred in Islam (see below). The flag of
Hamas,
[50] as well as the
flag of Iran, is green, symbolizing their
Islamist ideology.
[51] The
flag of Libya consists of a simple green field with no other characteristics. It is the only national flag in the world with just one color and no design, insignia, or other details.
[52] In the run-up to Iran's
2009 presidential election, the reformist candidate
Mir-Hossein Mousavi chose green as his campaign color, and it became pervasive among his supporters during the campaign and the post-election protests.
[53] Green is the lowest of the three bands on the
flag of India. The green stands for fertility and prosperity. earlier Indian flags had contained a similar green band representing Islam, the second-most predominant religion in India.
[54]Other countries use flags for reasons of heraldry, or to represent lush national vegetation. In
heraldry, green is called
vert (French for "green"). Fourteenth century documents describe vert as a symbol of "jolliness and youth, but also of beauty and shame" as well as of death. Vert is used for the flags of Wales and Hungary, and is the basis for the
Brazilian flag as well.
[55][56] Other countries using green in their flags use it to represent their country's lush vegetation, as in the
flag of Jamaica,
[57] and hope in the future, as in the
flag of Nigeria.
[58]Green is a symbol of Ireland, which is often referred to as the “Emerald Isle”. The color is particularly identified with the
republican and
nationalist traditions in modern times. It is used this way on the flag of the Republic of Ireland, in balance with
white and the Protestant
orange.
[59] Green is a strong trend in the Irish holiday
St. Patrick’s Day.
[60]Green has become the symbolic color of
environmentalism, chosen for its association with nature, health, and growth. The
Green Party is any of various political parties emphasizing
ecology,
grassroots democracy,
nonviolence, and
social justice. Green Parties, now active in over one hundred countries, are more broadly included in the green movement, and most are members of the
Global Green Network.
[61] The association of green with advocates of the environment has extended to other circles as well, as is the case with
Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who is often referred to as the “Green Patriarch” because the new environmental focus which he brought about within the
Ecumenical Patriarchate.
[62]Religion
Main article:
Green in Islam
The
Libyan flag is completely green, in honor of Islam's veneration of the color.
[citation needed]
See also
Notes and references
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- ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ a b Khalifa, Rashad (trans). "Sura 76, The Human (Al-Insaan)". Quran The Final Testament. http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/noframes/ch76.html#21. Retrieved 2007-11-30.
- ^ W3C TR CSS3 Color Module, HTML4 color keywords. W3C. (May 2003). Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
- ^ "X11 rgb.txt". http://cvsweb.xfree86.org/cvsweb/*checkout*/xc/programs/rgb/rgb.txt?rev=1.1.
- ^ a b "Glossary Term: Color wheel". Sanford Corp.. 2005. http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study/g_color_wheel.html. Retrieved 2007-11-22.
- ^ Harper, Douglas (November 2001). "Online Etymology Dictionary". http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=green&searchmode=none. Retrieved 2007-11-22.
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 196
- ^ Newman, Paul and Martha Ratliff. Linguistic Fieldwork. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0521669375 pg. 105
- ^ "English: Thai Dictionary OnLine". 4M System. 2007. http://english-thai-dictionary.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=4f45ab7ea8c50b85369a44a3453bdb91&. Retrieved 2007-11-30.
- ^ F. Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary s.v. سبز
- ^ a b Carla N. Daughtry, "Greenness in the Field," Michigan Today, University of Michigan, Fall 1997
- ^ "Human Vision and Color Perception". Olympus Microscopy Resource Center. http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/lightandcolor/humanvisionintro.html. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
- ^ "Human Vision and Color Perception". Olympus Microscopy Resource Center. http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/lightandcolor/humanvisionintro.html. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
- ^ a b c d e The New Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2002. ISBN 0852297874
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- ^ de Vries, Ad (1976). Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company. pp. 226–28. ISBN 0-7204-8021-3.
- ^ The article on greenwashing discusses several examples.
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 162--Discussion of color Hunter Green
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- ^ The Idea of the Green Knight, Lawrence Besserman, ELH, Vol. 53, No. 2. (Summer, 1986), pp. 219-239. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- ^ Why The Devil Wears Green, D. W. Robertson Jr., Modern Language Notes, Vol. 69, No. 7. (Nov., 1954), pp. 470-472. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- ^ "Folklore and Symbolism of Green," by John Hutchings in Folklore, 1997, 108:55.
- ^ "Green is an unlucky color for automobiles". Snopes.com. 2007-02-27. http://www.snopes.com/autos/cursed/green.asp. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
- ^ Sean Elliott (2008-04-11). "Spectacular Spider-Man producer Victor Cook unmasks Spider secrets: Part 2". iF Magazine. http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=2718. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
- ^ Kalb, Ira. Creating Your Own Marketing Makes Good $ & Sense. K & A Press, 1989. ISBN 0924050012 pg. 210
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- ^ Yoon, Hong-Key. The Culture of Feng-Shui in Korea. Lexington: Lexington Books, 2006. ISBN 0739113488 pg. 27
- ^ "THAI BIRTH DAY COLORS AND BUDDHA IMAGE". United States Muay Thai Association Inc. 16 October 2004. http://www.usmta.com/Thai-Birthday.htm. Retrieved 14 November 2009. "An innovation of the Ayutthaya period."
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- ^ Khalifa, Rashad (trans). "Sura 18, The Cave (Al-Kahf)". Quran The Final Testament. masjidtuscon. http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/noframes/ch18.html#31. Retrieved 2007-11-30.
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- ^ Collins, Ace and Clint Hansen. Stories behind the Great Traditions of Christmas. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003. ISBN 0310248809 pg. 77
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