rouge

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French rouge (“red; red colouring”), a noun use of the adjective meaning red, which is recorded in Old French from about 1130,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Latin rubeus (“red, reddish”),^[2][3][6][7] related to ruber (“red”),^[3][4][6] from Proto-Indo-European *reudh- (“red, ruddy”), the root also of red.^[3][7][8] English first borrowed it in the 15th century, as an adjective meaning red and a noun for the colour; the cosmetic sense was borrowed again in the 18th century.^[9][3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Red in colour: before 1425, in the Medulla Grammatice, a rare use;^[2] Barnhart likewise dates the adjective before 1425, and the noun, a clear bright red colour, to 1437.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word also appeared in titles such as Rouge Cross and Rouge Dragon,^[9] which Hoad dates to the 15th century as names of two pursuivants of the English College of Arms, from their badges;^[11] the SOED explains them by the red cross of St George and the red dragon of Cadwallader, the badge of Henry VII.^[12] In French, red make-up was called rouge from 1579.^[2] The cosmetic sense is recorded in English from 1746;^[2][13] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1753, in Chesterfield's writings.^[9][3] It replaced native paint in this sense,^[3] and Barnhart notes that the modern term for it is blush.^[9] The OED now calls this sense somewhat archaic.^[2] The verb, to colour with rouge, is recorded from 1752,^[2][13] although Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1777, in Frances Burney;^[9][3] by 1780 it also meant to blush.^[2] Further senses came from French: French red wine (1786, in Jefferson's memorandum books),^[2] red as a colour to bet on in rouge et noir (1805) and roulette (1835),^[2] the polishing powder of ferric oxide also called jeweller's rouge (1808),^[2][5] and a political radical, in France from 1849 and in Quebec from 1854.^[2][12] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as red paint.^[14] In South African prison slang, rouge is bread spread with jam.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1425 – adjective, red.^[2][9]
• 1437 – noun, red colour.^[2][9]
• 1746 – a red cosmetic for the cheeks or lips.^[2][13]
• 1752 – verb, to apply rouge.^[2][13]
• 1753 – the cosmetic, in Chesterfield's writings.^[9][3]
• 1780 – verb, to blush.^[2]
• 1786 – French red wine.^[2]
• 1805 – red in rouge et noir.^[2]
• 1808 – a ferric oxide polishing powder.^[2]
• 1849 – a French political radical.^[2]
• 1854 – a member of a reform party in Quebec.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A red or pink cosmetic for colouring the cheeks or lips; blush.^[5][13][2]
2. A fine red powder of ferric oxide, used to polish metal and glass; jeweller's rouge.^[5][13][2]
3. Red, as a colour to bet on in roulette and rouge et noir.^[2][12]
4. (Canadian politics) A Liberal; originally, a member of a 19th-century reform party in Quebec.^[2][12]
5. French red wine.^[2][12]

Verb

1. To apply rouge to the cheeks or lips.^[5][13][2]
2. To redden or flush; to blush, or to make someone blush.^[13][2][12]

Adjective

1. (rare) Red; now chiefly in titles such as Rouge Croix.^[2][12][13]

Word family

• unrouged

Related words

• Baton Rouge
• Khmer Rouge
• rouge et noir
• ruby
• red
• rubric
• rubeola

Usage notes

A noun rouge with a separate source, of unknown origin, names a scrimmage in the Eton College field game (from 1832) and a score in that game and in rugby; in Canadian football it is a single point scored when the defending team fails to run a kick out of its own end zone (from 1884).^{[2][13][12][8][6]} It is pronounced /ruːdʒ/.^[2][13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com