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Etymology and origin of the English word hue

Pronunciation

hue1 colour

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 750 Cynewulf's Elene
Inherited from
Old English hiw via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *hiwją

Etymology

The word for colour is inherited from Middle English hewe,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English hīw (“colour, form, appearance, beauty”), also hēow and hīow,[5][6][7][8] from Proto-Germanic *hiwją.[9][10] It is cognate with Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐍅𐌹 (hiwi, “form, appearance”), Old Norse hȳ (“down, fine hair”) and Swedish hy (“skin, complexion”).[5][3][4][11] Barnhart and Watkins take it from Proto-Indo-European *ḱei-, a colour root,[6][5] and Klein relates it to hoar and to Lithuanian šývas (“white”);[4] Hoad calls the Germanic word of unknown origin.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Colour, and also form, appearance: Barnhart finds the form hēo about 750, in Cynewulf's Elene,[6] and the OED's first quotation for "colour" is from the Blickling Homilies.[7]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word meant form, shape and appearance as much as colour, and could even mean an apparition;[7][5] these senses died out in the 17th century, except in Scots.[7][13][14] From the 13th century it was used of the complexion of the face.[7] Etymonline and Weekley say that hue was largely pushed aside by colour after about 1600, surviving mainly in poetry,[5][15] until it was revived in the 1850s as a technical term:[5][13] in 1855 Maxwell used it for the attribute by which a colour is seen as red, green or blue, as distinct from its brightness and saturation.[7] As Middle English pronunciation changed, the spelling moved from hewe to heu and hue, which was fully established only in the late 17th century, perhaps under the influence of the French-derived hue, outcry.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 750 – hēo, colour, form.[6]
  • Old English – form, shape, appearance (obsolete by 1653).[7]
  • c. 1275 – complexion of the face.[7]
  • c. 1450 – the spelling hue.[6]
  • 1855 – in colour science, the attribute that makes a colour red, green, blue and so on.[7]
  • 1857 – a tint or variety of a colour.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A colour or shade of colour: the pale hues of early spring.[16][3][7]
  2. The property of a colour that makes it red, green, blue and so on, as distinct from its brightness and saturation.[16][3][7]
  3. Character or aspect: politicians of every hue.[16][3]

Verb

  1. To give colour to; to tinge.[3][7]

Word family

  • hued
  • hueless

hue2 outcry

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1200 probably before 1200, Layamon's Brut
Borrowed from
Old French hue via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old French huer

Etymology

The outcry is inherited from Middle English hu, also hew,[3] borrowed from Old French hue (“outcry, noise, war cry, hunting cry”), also hu and huee,[5][6][3][7] from huer (“to shout, hoot”),[3][4][8] probably of imitative origin.[5][6][7] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1155, as a cry to drive on or chase an animal and as the clamour of battle.[17] Klein compares hoot.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Outcry, clamour: Barnhart finds hiue probably before 1200, in Layamon's Brut;[6] Etymonline dates it to the mid-13th century,[5] and the OED to about 1330, in Mannyng's chronicle.[7]

Semantic evolution

The word meant the shouting of a crowd, especially in war or the hunt,[7][8] and the related verb hue, to shout, is recorded from before 1250, in The Owl and the Nightingale; it lived on in Cornwall for the shouts that guide seine fishermen.[7][8] The noun survives only in hue and cry, which appears as an Anglo-French legal term in 1246 for the outcry raised to pursue a felon,[6][5] and was extended to any cry of alarm by the 1580s.[5][6] Weekley notes that the phrase was at first probably a hunting expression, and that until 1838 Hue and Cry was the subtitle of the official police gazette.[15]

Timeline

  • before 1200 – hiue, outcry, in Layamon.[6]
  • 1246 – hue and cry, as a legal term in Anglo-French.[6]
  • before 1250 – the verb hue, to shout.[7]
  • c. 1330 – outcry, shouting (obsolete except in hue and cry by 1779).[7]
  • 1580s – hue and cry, any cry of alarm.[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic) A shout or outcry, now only in hue and cry, a loud public protest or, historically, the cry raised to pursue a criminal.[3][8][7]

Word family

  • hue and cry
  • hoar
  • hoot

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)

Related etymologies

  • gut · also from Old English
  • goat · also from Old English
  • tire · also from Old English
  • wheat · also from Old English
  • stark · also from Old English
  • den · also from Old English
  • buck · also from Old English
  • wrist · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Hue.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/hue. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

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