colour (Middle English)

Where does "colour" come from?

The Middle English noun 'colour' was borrowed from Anglo-Norman 'colur'[1], which derives from the Latin 'color'[1]. This Latin noun traces back to the earlier 'colōs'[2]. Its ultimate origin is the Proto-Indo-European root '*ḱel-', meaning 'to hide' or 'conceal'[2]. In Classical Latin, the nominative singular shifted to 'color' to match the oblique forms where the original 's' had shifted into an 'r'[2].

Open questions

• The derivation from the Proto-Indo-European root '*ḱel-' is a reconstruction based on the historical development of the Latin noun. [2]

Full etymology tree

• colour (Middle English), 'colour, hue, shade'
  • borrowed colur (Anglo-Norman)
    • inherited color (Latin), 'color (US), colour (UK); shade, hue, tint'
      • inherited colos (Latin), 'alternative form of color'
        • inherited *kelōs (Proto-Italic)
          • derived *ḱel- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to cover'

Ancestors

• color (Latin)

Descendants and derived words

• color (English)
• color (English)
• color (English)
• colour (English)
• colour (English)
• colour (English)

Sources

1. colour (Middle English) - Wiktionary
2. color (Latin) - Wiktionary

Updated August 2026

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