Editor's Corner

Good morning, everyone! I hope you had a nice three-day weekend, whether you honored fallen soldiers or honored hot dogs and hamburgers at a barbecue, or both.

Today I’m here to talk about more colors! Not red, blue, or white. Today I have the two funky greens from the Merriam-Webster colorquiz a couple of weeks ago. As with blues and reds, I’m going to provide the definitions from M-W, the color swatch from the quiz, and additional etymological information from the Online Etymology Dictionary.

viridian

a chrome green pigment that is a hydrated oxide of chromium

Shade of green, 1882, from the paint color name (1862), coined from Latin virid-, stem of viridis "green, blooming, vigorous" (see verdure) + -ian.

English earlier had viridity (early 15c.) "greenery, greenishness, verdure;" virid (adj.) "green, blooming" (c. 1600). Viridescent "greenish" is attested from 1788 in mineralogy; viridescence (n.) by 1830 in botany.

I was hoping to find a classic car in viridian green, but the closest I could come to viridian was this lovely bouquet of bird feathers:

And some lovely yarn, which is a little lighter.

The other green mentioned in the quiz was chartreuse, a color that burns my eyes like pepper spray and gasolene. Still, my mom loves it and I love her, so let’s have a look.

chartreuse

: a variable color averaging a brilliant yellow green

: a French liqueur

Esteemed type of liqueur, 1866, from la Grande-Chartreuse, chief monastery of the Carthusian order, which was founded 11c. and named for the massif de la Chartreuse (Medieval Latin Carthusianus) mountain group in the French Alps, where its first monastery was built. The liqueur recipe dates from early 17c.; the original now is marketed as Les Pères Chartreux. The color name (1884) is from the pale apple-green hue of the best type of the liqueur.

Now that’s interesting! The liqueur was first, and the color was named after the drink. Here are the bottles of a couple of versions. The one on the right is stronger (so that’s the one I need to take a swig of, next time my mom come’s home in a chartreuse outfit).

That’s all I have today! Cheers!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement

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

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