red

Pronunciation

• IPA: /red/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English red (also reed), inherited from Old English rēad,^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *raudaz,^[3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *reudh- (“red, ruddy”),^[2][4] which Etymonline calls the only colour word with a definite common PIE root.^[2] Its relatives include German rot, Dutch rood, Old Norse rauðr, Latin ruber and Ancient Greek ἐρυθρός (eruthrós, “red”).^[3][6][7] English ruddy and rust come from the same root, and ruby, rubric and russet from it through Latin.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Red: Old English rēad, about 700,^[3] used of many shades from purple and crimson to pink, of red clothes, dye, ink and wine, and of a ruddy face or red hair.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The long vowel was shortened after Middle English, as in bread and lead, but survives in the surnames Read, Reade, Reed and Reid.^[2][3] The noun is from about 1250,^[3][2] and a red-haired person from the early 14th century.^[2] Redbreast, red deer and red herring are 15th-century compounds.^[5] Red was linked with blood and violence from 1297, and the red flag of defiance in battle is recorded from 1602.^[3][2] The first political use in English is from 1848, in reports of the French “Red Republic”;^[3][2] a red was a radical from 1851 and a Bolshevik from 1917, and the Red Army is from 1918.^[2] In the red, “in debt”, is from 1926, from the red ink once used for debts.^[2][8] Church calendars marked feast days in red, which gave red-letter day.^[8] The Old English verb rēodan often meant “to stain with blood, wound, kill”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 700 – Old English rēad.^[3]
• c. 1250 – noun.^[3]
• 15th century – red herring, red deer.^[5]
• 1602 – the red flag in battle.^[3]
• 1848 – political sense.^[3][2]
• 1851 – a radical.^[2]
• 1917 – a Bolshevik.^[2]
• 1926 – in the red.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Of the colour of blood.
2. Reddish, or having reddish parts: red hair.
3. Flushed, ruddy.
4. (informal, often capitalized) Communist or radical.

Noun

1. The colour of blood, at the long-wave end of the spectrum.
2. Red pigment, wine or clothing.
3. (informal, often capitalized) A communist or radical.
4. (in the red) In debt; losing money.

Word family

• redly
• redness
• antired
• blood red
• brick red
• cherry red
• Chinese red
• chrome red

Related words

• ruddy
• rust
• ruby
• rubric
• russet
• redden

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press