color (English)

Where does "color" come from?

The English noun 'color' comes from Middle English 'colour'[1][3], which was adopted from Anglo-Norman 'colur'[1][3] and Old French 'colour'[1]. The word traces back to Latin 'color'[1][4], an alteration of earlier 'colōs'[2]. This Latin root derives from Proto-Italic '*kelōs', which ultimately descends from the Proto-Indo-European root '*ḱel-', meaning 'to hide' or 'to conceal'[2]. As it entered English, it displaced native terms like 'blee' from Old English 'blēo' and partly took over the role of 'hue' from Old English 'hīew'[1]. The spelling 'color' was later popularized in American English by Noah Webster to align directly with the original Latin form[1].

Open questions

The derivation of Proto-Italic '*kelōs' from the Proto-Indo-European root '*ḱel-' rests on reconstructed ancestral forms. [2]

Full etymology tree

color (English), 'The spectral composition of visible light.'
- inherited colour (Middle English), 'colour, hue, shade'
  - borrowed colur (Anglo-Norman)
    - derived colour (Old French), 'alternative form of color'
      - inherited color (Latin), 'color (US), colour (UK); shade, hue, tint'
        derived colos (Latin), 'alternative form of color'
        inherited *kelōs (Proto-Italic)
        inherited *ḱel- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to cover'

Ancestors

colour (Middle English)
colour (Old French)
color (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

couleur (English)

Descendants and derived words

anticolor (English)
bicolor (English)
bicolor (English)
bodycolor (English)
coat color dilution lethal (English)
colorability (English)
color analyst (English)
color announcer (English)
color banding (English)
color bar (English)
color barrier (English)
colorbearer (English)

Sources

Updated October 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris