Puce is not a yellow, chartreuse is not a red

[mneme]

Has anyone else ever noticed that there are certain color words that feel like they -should- be onemonapeic (or onemonapigmentic, anyway) -- but aren't -- because they actually stand for another color entirely?

Any idea why? (ok, Puce is easy; it should be an awful yellow or yellow-green color (and oddly, Firefox translates puce as a light green). But it isn't; it's a niceish dark pink biot sure why my hindbrain is convinced that chartreuse should be a red or purplish color, not a green).

Are there any others people can think of?

Comments

[shield-toad111.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any others at the moment, but a couple days ago the pathology lecturer wanted to call something chartreuse when it was really a reddish-purple, so you're not the only one with that particular inclination. Maybe because Chartreuse would be a really good name for a burlesque dancer wearing such a color?

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Chartreuse got easier for me after I met the beverage that it's named after. (Of course, Chartreuse the drink also comes in yellow, just like Curacao comes in every color of the rainbow instead of just blue, but nevermind that.)

On the other hand, cerise should be a shade of blue a bit brighter than cerulean instead of pink (cherries be damned), khaki should be olive-green instead of tan, and periwinkle, albeit pretty close, should be the color of the plant of that name.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I remember as a kid some model magazine had ads for a mail-order hobby shop called the "Chartreuse Caboose." Of course it had to be red.

I don't want to think about puce.

[fiddledragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, cerise is definitely a bright pale blue.

Going with the most common onomotopoaic patterns, I think I'd expect people to map low vowels to darker colors and high vowels to lighter/brighter colors. I wonder if that happens?

[auntiemisha.livejournal.com]

I had to google puce because I could not picture it in my head, and that's where I found out it has something to do with blood-sucking! whee! :-)

http://hibiscus-sinensis.com/regency/colors.htm