What Colours Mean

We live in a colorful world. In many countries, colours represent various holidays; they are also used to express feelings and enliven language. Find your favorite color and see what it means around the world.

~ RED ~

• For the ancient Romans, a red flag was a signal for battle.

•  Because of its visibility, stop signs, stoplights, brake lights, and fire equipment are all painted red.

• The ancient Egyptians considered themselves a red race and painted their bodies with red dye for emphasis.

• In Russia, red means beautiful. The Bolsheviks used a red flag as their symbol when they overthrew the tsar in 1917. That is how red became the color of communism.

• In India, red is the symbol for a soldier.

• In South Africa, red is the color of mourning.

• It's considered good luck to tie a red bow on a new car.

• In China, red is the color of good luck and is used as a holiday and wedding color. Chinese babies are given their names at a red-egg ceremony.

• Superstitious people think red frightens the devil.

• A “red-letter day” is one of special importance and good fortune.

• In Greece, eggs are dyed red for good luck at Easter time.

• To “paint the town red” is to celebrate.

• Red is the color most commonly found in national flags.

• In the English War of the Roses, red was the color of the House of Lancaster, which defeated the House of York, symbolized by the color white.

• The “Redshirts” were the soldiers of the Italian leader Garibaldi, who unified modern Italy in the nineteenth century.

• To “see red” is to be angry.

• A “red herring” is a distraction, something that takes attention away from the real issue.

• A “red eye” is an overnight airplane flight.

• If a business is “in the red,” it is losing money.

~ GREEN ~

• Only one national flag is a solid color: the green flag of Libya.

• Ancient Egyptians colored the floors of their temples green.

• In ancient Greece, green symbolized victory.

• In the highlands of Scotland, people wore green as a mark of honor.

• Green is the national color of Ireland.

• A “greenback” is slang for a U.S. dollar bill.

• Green means “go.” When “all systems are green,” it means everything is in order.

• The green room of a concert hall or theater is where performers relax before going onstage.

• The “green-eyed monster” is jealousy.

• A greenhorn is a newcomer or unsophisticated person.

• Green is youthful.

• Being “green around the gills” is looking pale and sickly.

• “Green with envy” means full of envy or jealousy.

• A person with a “green thumb” is good at making plants grow.

• A green, or common, is a town park.

• Green is a healing color, the color of nature.

~ BLUE ~

• In ancient Rome, public servants wore blue. Today, police and other public servants wear blue.

• In Iran, blue is the color of mourning.

• Blue was used as protection against witches, who supposedly dislike the color.

• If you are “true blue,” you are loyal and faithful.

• Blue stands for love, which is why a bride carries or wears something blue on her wedding day.

• A room painted blue is said to be relaxing.

• “Feeling blue” is feeling sad. “Blue devils” are feelings of depression.

• Something “out of the blue” is from an unknown source at an unexpected time.

• A bluebook is a list of socially prominent people.

• The first prize gets a blue ribbon.

• A blue blood is a person of noble descent. This is probably from the blue veins of the fair-complexioned aristocrats who first used this term.

• “Into the blue” means into the unknown.

• A “bluenose” is a strict, puritanical person.

• A “bluestocking” used to be a scholarly or highly knowledgeable woman.

• The pharaohs of ancient Egypt wore blue for protection against evil.

• The “blues” is a style of music derived from southern African-American secular songs. It influenced the development of rock, R&B, and country music.

• “Blue laws” are used to enforce moral standards.

• A blue ribbon panel is a group of especially qualified people.

~ Purple, Violet ~

• The Egyptian queen Cleopatra loved purple. To obtain one ounce of Tyrian purple dye, she had her servants soak 20,000 Purpura

snails for 10 days.

• In Thailand, purple is worn by a widow mourning her husband's death.

• A “purple heart” is a U.S. military decoration for soldiers wounded or killed in battle.

• Purple is a royal color.

• Purple robes are an emblem of authority and rank.

• “Purple speech” is profane talk.

• “Purple prose” is writing that is full of exaggerated literary effects and ornamentation.

• Leonardo da Vinci believed that the power of meditation increases 10 times when done in a purple light, as in the purple light of stained glass.

• Purple in a child's room is said to help develop the imagination according to color theory.

• Richard Wagner composed his operas in a room with shades of violet, his color of inspiration.

~ Yellow ~

• In Egypt and Burma, yellow signifies mourning.

• In Spain, executioners once wore yellow.

• In India, yellow is the symbol for a merchant or farmer.

• In tenth-century France, the doors of traitors and criminals were painted yellow.

• Hindus in India wear yellow to celebrate the festival of spring.

• If someone is said to have a “yellow streak,” that person is considered a coward.

• In Japan during the War of Dynasty in 1357, each warrior wore a yellow chrysanthemum as a pledge of courage.

• A yellow ribbon is a sign of support for soldiers at the front.

• Yellow is a symbol of jealousy and deceit.

• In the Middle Ages, actors portraying the dead in a play wore yellow.

• To holistic healers, yellow is the color of peace.

• Yellow has good visibility and is often used as a color of warning. It is also a symbol for quarantine, an area marked off because of danger.

• “Yellow journalism” refers to irresponsible and alarmist reporting.

~ White ~

• A white flag is the universal symbol for truce.

• White means mourning in China and Japan.

• Angels are usually depicted wearing white robes.

• The ancient Greeks wore white to bed to ensure pleasant dreams.

• The Egyptian pharaohs wore white crowns.

• The ancient Persians believed all gods wore white.

• A “white elephant” is a rare, pale elephant considered sacred to the people of India, Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka; in this country, it is either a possession that costs more than it is worth to keep or an item that the owner doesn't want but can't get rid of.

• It's considered good luck to be married in a white garment.

• White heat is a state of intense enthusiasm, anger, devotion, or passion.

• To whitewash is to gloss over defects or make something seem presentable that isn't.

• A “white knight” is a rescuer.

• A white list contains favored items (as opposed to a blacklist).

• A “whiteout” occurs when there is zero visibility during a blizzard.

• A “white sale” is a sale of sheets, towels, and other bed and bath items.

• A “whited sepulcher” is a person who is evil inside but appears good on the outside, a hypocrite.

• “White lightning” is slang for moonshine, a homebrewed alcohol.

• A white room is a clean room as well as a temperature-controlled, dust-free room for precision instruments.

• White water is the foamy, frothy water in rapids and waterfalls.

Black

• The ancient Egyptians and Romans used black for mourning, as do most Europeans and Americans today.

• The “Blackshirts” were the security troops in Hitler's German army, also known as the S.S.

• Black often stands for secrecy.

• Black humor is morbid or unhealthy and gloomy humor.

• A “blackhearted” person is evil.

• If a business is “in the black,” it is making money.

• A “blacklist” is a list of persons or organizations to be boycotted or punished.

• Black is associated with sophistication and elegance. A “black tie” event is formal.

• A black belt in karate identifies an expert.

• A black flag in a car race is the signal for a driver to go to the pits.

• A blackguard is a scoundrel.

• The ancient Egyptians believed that black cats had divine powers.

• Black lung is a coal miner's disease caused by the frequent inhaling of coal dust.

• Blackmail is getting things by threat.

• Black market is illegal trade in goods or money.

• A black sheep is an outcast.

• “Blackwash” (as opposed to “whitewash”) is to uncover or bring out in the light.

• A blackout is a period of darkness from the loss of electricity, for protection against nighttime air raids, or, in the theater, to separate scenes in a play.

• When you “black out,” you temporarily lose consciousness.