A color term, also known as a color name, is a word or phrase that refers to a specific color. The color term may refer to human perception of that color (which is affected by visual context), or to an underlying physical property (such as a specific wavelength of visible light). There are also numerical systems of color specification, referred to as color spaces.

In natural languages[link]

Monolexemic color words are composed of individual lexemes, such as "red", "brown", or "olive". Compound color words make use of adjectives (e.g. "light brown", "sea green") or multiple basic color words (e.g. "yellow-green").

Color dimensions[link]

There are many different dimensions by which color varies. For example, hue (shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet), saturation ("deep" vs. "pale"), and brightness or intensity make up the HSI color space. The adjective "fluorescent" in English refers to moderately high brightness with strong color saturation. Pastel refers to colors with high brightness and low saturation.

Some phenomena are due to related optical effects, but may or may not be described separately from the color name. These include gloss (high-gloss shades are sometimes described as "metallic"; this is also a distinguishing feature of gold and silver), iridescence or goniochromism (angle-dependent color), dichroism (two-color surfaces), and opacity (solid vs. translucent).

Cultural differences[link]

Different cultures have different terms for colors, and may also assign some color terms to slightly different parts of the human color space: for instance, the Chinese character 青 (pronounced qīng in Mandarin and ao in Japanese) has a meaning that covers both blue and green; blue and green are traditionally considered shades of "青." In more contemporary terms, they are 藍 (lán, in Mandarin) and 綠 (lǜ, in Mandarin) respectively. Japanese also has two terms that refer specifically to the color green, 緑 (midori which is derived from the classical Japanese descriptive verb midoru 'to be in leaf, to flourish' in reference to trees) and グリーン (guriin, which is derived from the English word 'green'). However, in Japan, although the traffic lights have the same colors that other countries' have, the green light is described using the same word as for blue, "aoi", because green is considered a shade of aoi; similarly, green variants of certain fruits and vegetables such as green apples, green shiso (as opposed to red apples and red shiso) will be described with the word "aoi".

Similarly, languages are selective when deciding which hues are split into different colors on the basis of how light or dark they are. English splits some hues into several distinct colors according to lightness: such as red and pink or orange and brown. To English speakers, these pairs of colors, which are objectively no more different from one another than light green and dark green, are conceived of as belonging to different categories.^[1] A Russian will make the same red-pink and orange-brown distinctions, but will also make a further distinction between sinii and goluboi, which English speakers would simply call dark and light blue. To Russian speakers, sinii and goluboi are as separate as red and pink or orange and brown.^[2]

Hungarian and Turkish have two words for "red": piros and vörös- vörös is a darker red (Hungarian), and kırmızı and al (Turkish). Turkish also has two words for "white": beyaz and ak. Similarly, Irish uses two words for green: glas denotes the green color of plants, while uaithne describes artificial greens of dyes, paints etc. This distinction is made even if two shades are identical.

In Komi language, green is considered a shade of yellow (виж, vizh) and it's called турун виж (turun vizh): "grass yellow".

[edit] Basic color terms

However, Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, in a classic study (1969) of worldwide color naming,^[1] argued that these differences can be organized into a coherent hierarchy, and that there are a limited number of universal "basic color terms" which begin to be used by individual cultures in a relatively fixed order. Berlin and Kay based their analysis on a comparison of color words in 20 languages from around the world. To be considered a basic color term, the words had to be

• monolexemic ("green", but not "light green" or "forest green"),
• high-frequency, and
• agreed upon by speakers of that language.

(This last point, however, can be ambiguous, as native speakers may not always agree with each other.) Their analysis showed that, in a culture with only two terms, the two terms would mean roughly 'dark' (covering black, dark colors and cold colors such as blue) and 'bright' (covering white, light colors and warm colors such as red). All languages with three colors terms would add red to this distinction. Thus, the three most basic colors are black, white, and red. Additional color terms are added in a fixed order as a language evolves: first one of green or yellow; then the other of green or yellow; then blue. All languages distinguishing six colors contain terms for black, white, red, green, yellow, and blue. These colors roughly correspond to the sensitivities of the retinal ganglion cells, leading Berlin and Kay to argue that color naming is not merely a cultural phenomenon, but is one that is also constrained by biology—that is, language is shaped by perception.

As languages develop, they next adopt a term for brown; then terms for orange, pink, purple and/or gray, in any order.^[3] Finally, a basic term for light blue appears.

The proposed evolutionary trajectories as of 1999 are as follows. 80% of sampled languages lie along the central path.^[4]

Today every natural language that has words for colors is considered to have from two to twelve basic color terms. All other colors are considered by most speakers of that language to be variants of these basic color terms. English contains the eleven basic color terms "black," "white," "red," "green," "yellow," "blue," "brown," "orange," "pink," "purple" and "gray." Italian and Russian have twelve, distinguishing blue and azure. That doesn't mean English speakers cannot describe the difference of the two colors, of course; however, in English, azure is not a basic color term because one can say bright sky blue instead, while pink is basic because speakers do not say light red.

Abstract and descriptive color words[link]

Color words in a language can also be divided into abstract color words and descriptive color words, though the distinction is blurry in many cases. Abstract color words are words that only refer to a color. In English white, black, red, yellow, green, blue, brown, and gray are abstract color words. These words also happen to be 'basic color terms' in English as described above, but colors like maroon and magenta are also abstract though they may not be considered 'basic color terms', either because they are considered by native speakers to be too rare, too specific, or subordinate hues of more basic colors (red in the case of maroon, or purple in the case of magenta).

Descriptive color words are words that are secondarily used to describe a color but primarily used to refer to an object or phenomenon. "Salmon", "rose", "saffron", and "lilac" are descriptive color words in English because their use as color words is derived in reference to natural colors of salmon flesh, rose flowers, infusions of saffron pistils, and lilac blossoms respectively. Often a descriptive color word will be used to specify a particular hue of basic color term (salmon and rose [descriptive] are both hues of pink).

Colors in some languages may be denoted by descriptive color words even though other languages may use an abstract color word for the same color; for example in Japanese pink is "momoiro" (桃色, lit. "peach-color") and gray is either "haiiro" or "nezumiiro" (灰色, 鼠色, lit. "ash-color" for light grays and "mouse-color" for dark grays respectively); nevertheless, as languages change they may adopt or invent new abstract color terms, as Japanese has adopted "pinku (ピンク) for pink and "guree" (グレー) for gray from English.

The status of some color words as abstract or descriptive is debatable. The color "pink" was originally a descriptive color word derived from the name of a flower called a "pink" (see dianthus); however, because the word "pink" (flower) has become very rare whereas "pink" (color) has become very common, many native speakers of English use "pink" as an abstract color word alone and furthermore consider it to be one of the 'basic color terms' of English. "Purple" is another example of this shift, as it was originally a word that referred to a dye (see Tyrian purple).

The word "orange" is difficult to categorize as abstract or descriptive because both its uses, as a color word and as a word for an object, are very common and it is difficult to distinguish which of the two is primary. As a basic color term it became established in the early to mid 20th century; before that time artist's palettes called it "yellow-red". In English, the use of the word "orange" for a fruit predates its use as a color term; it is derived from the Sanskrit "narang" or Tamil "naraththai" via the Portuguese "laranja"; the derived form orangish as a color is attested from the late 19th century.^[5] by reference to the fruit. Nevertheless, "orange" (color) is usually given equal status to red, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, pink, gray, white and black (all abstract colors) in membership among the basic color terms of English. Based solely on current usage of the word, it would be impossible to distinguish whether the fruit is called an orange because of its color, or the color is so called after the fruit.^[6] (This problem is also illustrated by violet and indigo.)

Recently, a researcher at Hewlett-Packard, Nathan Moroney, has been performing an online experiment in unconstrained color naming in English and 21 other languages. He has published some of the results of this work and the experiment is ongoing, in collaboration with Giordano Beretta.^[7]

Standardized systems[link]

Some examples of color naming systems are CNS^[8] and ISCC–NBS lexicon of color terms. The disadvantage of these systems, however, is that they only specify specific color samples, so while it is possible to, by interpolating, convert any color to or from one of these systems, a lookup table is required. In other words, no simple invertible equation can convert between CIE XYZ and one of these systems.

Philatelists traditionally use names to identify postage stamp colors. While the names are largely standardized within each country, there is no broader agreement, and so for instance the US-published Scott catalog will use different names than the British Stanley Gibbons catalogue.

On modern computer systems a standard set of basic color terms is now used across the web color names (SVG 1.0/CSS3), HTML color names, X11 color names and the .NET Framework color names, with only a few minor differences.

The Crayola company is famous for its many crayon colors, often creatively named.

Color names, paint stores, and fashion[link]

Color naming in fashion and paint exploits the subjectiveness and emotional context of words and their associations. This is particularly seen in the naming of paint chips and samples where paint is sold. This may in fact be an aid to moving a customer through the store more rapidly, as closely similar shades may be equally valid in a specific application, with selection being determined by individual preference, colors of furnishings and artwork, and the quality and character of light, both artificial and natural. The attachment of an emotional context to a color sample by choice of name may enhance the rapidity of selection.

In fashion and automotive colors the objective of naming is to enhance the perception of color through appropriate naming to fit the emotional context desired. Thus the same "poppy yellow" can become either the hot blooded and active "amber rage", the cozy and peaceful "late afternoon sunshine", or the wealth evoking "sierra gold". The divisions of General Motors often give different names to the same colors.

Names given to the most vivid colors often often include the word neon, alluding to the bright glow of neon lighting. Dyes and inks producing these colors are often fluorescent, producing a luminous glow when viewed under a black light.

See also[link]

• List of colors
• Color wheel

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Brent Berlin and Paul Kay (1969) Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution
2. ^ Access : Seeing the blues : Nature News
3. ^ Varley, Helen, editor Color London:1980--Marshall Editions, Ltd. ISBN 0-89535-037-8 "The Vocabulary of Color" Pages 50-51
4. ^ Paul Kay and Luisa Maffi, 'Color Appearance and the Emergence and Evolution of Basic Color Lexicons', American Anthropologist, 1999 March 7.[1]
5. ^ OED, 'orangish'.
6. ^ [2]^{[dead link]}
7. ^ HP Labs : People Pages : Color Naming Experiment
   HP Labs : People Pages : Nathan Moroney : Multi-Lingual Color Naming
   Nathan Moroney, 2003. “Unconstrained web-based color naming experiment", SPIE/IS&T Electronic Imaging.
   Giordano Beretta and Nathan Moroney, 2008. “Cognitive Aspects of Color.”
   ibid. “Color naming: color scientists do it between Munsell sheets of color.”
   ibid 2011. “Is it turquoise + fuchsia = purple or is it turquoise + fuchsia = blue?.”
   ibid 2011. “Validating Large-Scale Lexical Color Resources.”
   Giordano Beretta, Nathan Moroney, and John Recker, 2009. “Toward Robust Categorical Color Perception.”
8. ^ Berk, T.; Brownston, L.; Kaufman, A. (1982), "A New Color-Naming System for Graphics Languages", IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2, IEEE, pp. 37–44 

External links[link]

• The Colour of Words - Article on Color Names
• Coloria.net: Color names
• Japanese Color Names Cheat Sheet
• Japanese Traditional Color Names
• Japanese colors with English names
• Inter-Society Color Council
• The color names in CSS 3: Color Module and SVG
• Survey of color dictionaries
• An Online Color Naming Experiment
• Color Words in Many Languages
• Test your own color terms

Joe McNally

Joe McNally (1952—^[1]) is an American photographer who has been shooting for the National Geographic Society since 1987.^{[2][dead link]}

McNally was born in Montclair, New Jersey. He received his bachelor's and graduate degrees from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.^[2] He is based out of New York City and resides in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Career[link]

From 1994 until 1998 Joe McNally was LIFE magazine's staff photographer, the first one in 23 years. His most well known series is the "Faces of Ground Zero — Portraits of the Heroes of September 11th", a collection of 246 giant Polaroid portraits shot in the Moby C Studio near Ground Zero in a three-week period shortly after 9/11. A large group of these life-size (9' x 4') photos were exhibited in seven cities in 2002, seen by almost a million people. The exhibit and the book, printed by LIFE, helped raise approximately $2 million for the 9/11-relief effort.

McNally has contributed for the National Geographic magazine for 20 years. One of his photographic projects for the magazine was "The Future of Flying," a 32-page cover story, published in December 2003, commemorating the centennial observance of the Wright brothers' flight. This story was the first all digital shoot for the magazine.^[3] This issue was a National Magazine Award Finalist,^[4] and one of the magazine’s most popular covers.

He has shot cover stories for Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, Geo, Fortune, New York, Business Week, LIFE and Men’s Journal, among others. McNally’s advertising, marketing and promotional work includes FedEx, Nikon, Sony, Land's End, General Electric, MetLife, Bogen, Adidas, Kelby Media Group, Wildlife Conservation Society, and American Ballet Theatre.

In 2008, McNally published his book, The Moment It Clicks. In 2009, McNally published The Hotshoe Diaries and in 2011, he published his third book Sketching Light.

He's known for heavy usage of CLS and Speedlight.

Awards and honors[link]

McNally has been described by American Photo magazine as perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today and was listed as one of the hundred most important people in photography.^[2]

In January 1999 Kodak and Photo District News honored McNally by inducting him into their Legends Online archive. In 2001 Nikon bestowed a similar honor when McNally was placed on NikonNet.com's list of Legends Behind the Lens.^[2]

He has received the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for magazine photography and has been honored by Pictures of the Year International, World Press Photo, and the Art Directors Club. He has also been recognized by the magazines Photo District News, American Photo, Applied Arts magazine, Communication Arts, and Graphis Inc..^[2]

Books[link]

• McNally, Joe. Faces of Ground Zero. Portraits of the Heroes of September 11, 2001. 
• The Moment It Clicks: Photography secrets from one of the world's top shooters, by Joe McNally
• Hot Shoe Diaries, The: Big Light from Small Flashes, by Joe McNally
• Sketching Light: An Illustrated Tour of the Possibilities of Flash, by Joe McNally

References[link]

External links[link]

• Joe McNally's Web site
• Joe McNally's Blog
• Biographical sketch at National Geographic Web site
• Peachpit.com Podcast Interview with Joe McNally

Michael Castaneda, better known by his alias Terminal 11, is an American electronic musician from Tempe, Arizona. His music producing style is generally considered as breakcore.

Castaneda has appeared on numerous underground electronic labels, including Phthalo, Cock Rock Disco, Hymen Records, Ad Noiseam, Digital Vomit Records, Mutant Sniper and others.^[1] His music is characterized by frenetic, impossibly fast tempos and a machine-gun fire spattering of unidentifiable samples.

Castaneda has toured Europe and the United States extensively.^[2]

His 2007 album Fractured Sunshine spawned an animated music video for the track "The Bird's Midair Heatstroke".^[3]

Selected discography[link]

Speed Modified (Phthalo Records, 2001) Don Maximo/Postmod Premax (Phthalo Records, 2003) Illegal Nervous Habits (Cock Rock Disco, 2005) Additions To Arsenal (Phthalo Records, 2006) Fractured Sunshine (Hymen Records, 2007) Kaleidoscope Eyes (Cock Rock Disco, 2009)

References[link]

External links[link]

• [1]^{[dead link]}
• Illegal Nervous Habits by TERMINAL 11 - CD - Boomkat - Your independent music specialist

Bill Nguyen is a technology entrepreneur.

Life[link]

He grew up in Houston, the son of Vietnamese immigrants whom he says he consistently disappointed. They wanted him to score A's. Instead, he scored an unpredictable mix of A's and F's, and earned a 1.4 grade point average in his senior year. He was easily distracted and confused. In middle school, not content to earn money doing the occasional lawn, he had a business renting out his lawn mower to other kids for a cut of their pay. At 16 he moved out of his parents' house to sell cars. He later took classes at Houston Baptist University but never graduated.

Career[link]

Mr. Bill Nguyen is a co-founder of Color Labs, Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Nguyen founded Seven Networks Inc. in May 2000 and served as its co-Chief Executive Officer until April 2005. Before founding SEVEN, Mr. Nguyen founded Onebox.com in 1999. It was acquired for $850 million in 1999 by Phone.com (now part of Openwave). Nguyen sold his stake quickly and started Seven, a wireless e-mail firm that claims 1.4 billion accounts He also co-founded La La Media Inc. in 2005. Apple acquired LaLa in December 2009 for around $80 million (he remains CEO). Lala lets users upload their music collections into the Cloud and stream them anywhere in the world. The service shut down in April 2010 with users getting credits on the Apple iTunes Store. Prior to starting Onebox, Mr. Nguyen served as Vice President of Products at Tioga Systems (now Support.com). He served as Vice President of Products of FreeLoader and headed Business Development and Product Management at the ForeFront Group.

In 2002, he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.^[1]

External links[link]

• La La Land – WSJ Magazine
• You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet – Forbes.com
• TR35: Bill Nguyen, 30 – Technology Review

References[link]