Etymologically
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red

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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