A Dictionary of Colour

Overview

A Lexicon of the Language of Colour

This dictionary is the first of its kind: a treasury of colour words and phrases, a comprehensive resource for exploring every aspect of colour and its many applications across the disciplines and through the ages.

Words are drawn from many different worlds including art, artists, craft and design, painting, printing and sculpture, the decorative arts, gems, fashion, textiles, cosmetics, physics, maths, astronomy, chemistry, dyes, colourants, paints, biology, geography, geology, minerals, history, art history, social history, religion, philosophy, heraldry, mythology and symbolism, language, linguistics, grammar, slang, literature [inc. the Bible and Shakespeare], music, theatre, photography, television and film, psychology and human behaviour, education, politics, commerce, economics, finance, law, travel, war, vision and colour-blindness, medicine, drugs and colour therapy, food and drink, colour theory and many others.

• Appendix One: Dictionary of colour phrases
• Appendix Two: The colours [over 1000]
• Appendix Three: Adjectives of colour

Who should buy this book?

Writers, journalists, copywriters, graphic, textile and fashion designers, artists and illustrators, art students, art critics, decorators, architects, set designers, colourists and dye-makers, colour scientists, product designers, product originators and marketers, manufacturers of paints and wallpapers, language enthusiasts, word-lovers and dictionary collectors. Plus all general libraries and academic libraries relating to the above disciplines.

Reviews

‘I am simply astonished! The Dictionary of Colour is astounding. I started thinking “Why would one want this?” and ended up deep in the origins of turquoise, the fact that homage means blue, maddening conundrums like the hat problem, and so on. I have now wasted happy hours and am not going to stop!’

Prue Leith, OBE

‘The book is a unique resource for exploring every aspect of colour and its applications across virtually all human activity through the ages… Everyone involved professionally with colour, in whatever way, will find this book not only intriguing but of real practical benefit.’

Michael Peters, The Identica Partnership

The author

Ian Paterson is a successful commercial lawyer and author; he has pursued a lifelong interest in dictionaries and colour in its various word forms and applications.