The Word History of Colours – Turquoise

Hello,

I’ve always been fascinated by how we name colours. I’ve already covered mummy brown (yes, real mummies in that paint), the gory history of magenta, rhymes about colours, cerulean, vermillion, and the medicinal use of lapis lazuli. This week I’m taking a look at turquoise, that striking blue-green shade, and one I’m fond of myself.

My turquoise top (yes, it has more green tone in real life)

Turquoise is an opaque blue-green mineral which is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium (yes, I had to look that one up). If you believe in such things it is associated with the Saggittarius star sign.

Turquoise was used in the decorative arts of many ancient civilisations including Egypt, the Aztecs, Persia, Mesopotamia, India, and China. Possibly the best known use is in Tutankhamun’s iconic gold and turquoise striped burial mask.

Turquoise is this stone’s most recent name. Pliny the Elder called it callais (from an earlier Ancient Greek word) and the Aztecs called it chalchihuitl (don’t ask me to pronounce that one).

The Middle English term for turquoise was turkeis (or turtogis) in the late 1300s but in the 1500s this was replaced by turquoise from the Old French word turqueise (Turkish) in the phrase pierre turqueise (Turkish stone). This colourful stone gained the name because it was imported to Europe from lands ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The stone has similar names in other languages for the same reason. You will find turquesa (Spanish), lapis turchesius (Medieval Latin), turcoys (Middle Dutch), türkis (German), and turkos (Swedish). The habit of naming things turkey or turkish thanks to their Turkish exporters of course is also where we get our Christmas turkeys.

By the late 1500s people were using turquoise as an adjective to describe other things which were turquoise coloured such as fabrics and by the 1850s it was simply a name of a colour.

Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)