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Fwd: color question
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Andrew Brown forwarded a message from David Celmer, who sent much esoteric
information about wine and also wrote:
> As for coloration, I doubt that "blue" would be at the end: the sky is
> far too
>prominent an event, not to mention the larger seas and oceans, feathers of
>birds, perhaps eye color, salt-water fish, certain plants ...
>
>As for the "red" of the sea, I'm far more inclined to believe that it's the
>natural effect of oceans and salt water, ie., the Mediterranean: there's a
>species of plankton or microbe or something which, somewhat regularly,
>occurs:
>the sea turns quite red, fishing becomes abominable, there's a slight
>smell: I
>saw it while living on the Pacific Ocean near Acapulco in '82: the
>Mexicans have
>an expression for it which translates into "The ocean is bleeding" ie.,
>having
>its menstrual period. It lasts a week or ten days, then fades.
Blue being the last color to be named is something I heard in a lecture
about color by Betty Edwards, teacher and writer ("Drawing on the Right
Side of the Brain", etc.), admittedly no linguist.
Perhaps old languages had words for "morning-sky-blue", "midday-sky-blue",
"baby-eyes-blue", "twilight-blue", "gentian-blue", etc. but no
comprehensive word as we understand the color? Does Eskimo language with
its legendary twenty words for snow have a translation for English "snow"?
I understand that "one", "two", maybe "three" and beyond preceded the word
for "number" in language and that seems natural for children. So Don's
explanation that "wine-dark" is just about automatically associated with
"sea-color" (or "Miditerranean-blue"?) is clear to me now.
I've seen the "red tide" caused by microscopic protozoa, but hadn't heard
the Mexican expression. Is it related to sangre or to menstruo or to
neither? Is the expression used in Spain? It is surely appropriate, as is
"cherry Koolaid", more so than wine-red imo. But neither Koolaid nor wine
has that quality of lasting only a few days.
Mary Krimmel
----- End forwarded message -----
information about wine and also wrote:
> As for coloration, I doubt that "blue" would be at the end: the sky is
> far too
>prominent an event, not to mention the larger seas and oceans, feathers of
>birds, perhaps eye color, salt-water fish, certain plants ...
>
>As for the "red" of the sea, I'm far more inclined to believe that it's the
>natural effect of oceans and salt water, ie., the Mediterranean: there's a
>species of plankton or microbe or something which, somewhat regularly,
>occurs:
>the sea turns quite red, fishing becomes abominable, there's a slight
>smell: I
>saw it while living on the Pacific Ocean near Acapulco in '82: the
>Mexicans have
>an expression for it which translates into "The ocean is bleeding" ie.,
>having
>its menstrual period. It lasts a week or ten days, then fades.
Blue being the last color to be named is something I heard in a lecture
about color by Betty Edwards, teacher and writer ("Drawing on the Right
Side of the Brain", etc.), admittedly no linguist.
Perhaps old languages had words for "morning-sky-blue", "midday-sky-blue",
"baby-eyes-blue", "twilight-blue", "gentian-blue", etc. but no
comprehensive word as we understand the color? Does Eskimo language with
its legendary twenty words for snow have a translation for English "snow"?
I understand that "one", "two", maybe "three" and beyond preceded the word
for "number" in language and that seems natural for children. So Don's
explanation that "wine-dark" is just about automatically associated with
"sea-color" (or "Miditerranean-blue"?) is clear to me now.
I've seen the "red tide" caused by microscopic protozoa, but hadn't heard
the Mexican expression. Is it related to sangre or to menstruo or to
neither? Is the expression used in Spain? It is surely appropriate, as is
"cherry Koolaid", more so than wine-red imo. But neither Koolaid nor wine
has that quality of lasting only a few days.
Mary Krimmel
----- End forwarded message -----