Editor's Corner

Hello folks!

Today I am exploring some of the other colors from the Merriam-Webster quiz. This time, I’m going for the blues. I thought I’d start with turquoise, which my mom always calls “turquoise blue,” but when you look at it next to other blues, it looks almost greenish.

Sarah K. sent me a link to an article about this very topic from the Guardian, and she also sent another color test, specifically about greens and blues.

I know that the color tests aren’t really fair if you are colorblind (though one of the best scores was from someone colorblind who guessed the answers based on etymology and smartness). 😊Just like last time, I’m looking at the meaning and origins of the words, from Merriam-Webster and the Online Etymology Dictionary.

turquoise

1: a mineral that is a blue, bluish-green, or greenish-gray hydrous basic phosphate of copper and aluminum, takes a high polish, and is valued as a gem when sky blue

2: a light greenish blue

And the etymology:

opaque greenish-blue precious stone, 1560s, from French, replacing Middle English turkeis, turtogis (late 14c.), from Old French fem. adjective turqueise "Turkish," in pierre turqueise "Turkish stone." So called for being brought to Europe first from Turkestan or via Turkish Ottoman lands.

Okay, that’s enough. I want to see some jewelry! This is a good photo of the variety of colors that turquoise encompasses.

cyan

a greenish-blue color

That’s it? That doesn’t look at all green to me. You may recognize cyan as one of the colors in your printer. That particular color screams printer ink to me. Well, do we have anything more interesting in the etymology department?

"greenish-blue color," 1889, short for cyan blue (1879), from Greek kyanos "dark blue, dark blue enamel, lapis lazuli,"

Well, that gets us even farther away from greenish-blue. Dark blue enamel? Lapis lazuli? I love Lapis, but let me show you how that looks compared to the cyan color block above.

I give the color creators or dictionary definition divas an F on that. Greenish-blue? I think not.

azure

Here’s one with varied definitions from the dictionary:
1a: the blue color of the clear sky

b: the heraldic color blue

2: the unclouded sky

3: archaic : lapis lazuli

Hmm…I think of the sky as much lighter than that, but I suppose it could be that color. Let’s see if the etymology gives us any further information.

"sky-blue color; pigment or paint made of powdered lapis lazuli"

A couple examples for my search of “sky blue images”:

And here are the different colors of the sky according to a color chart, so I guess azure gets a pass:

Am I blue? Nope! Have a great day!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

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