Etymologically
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yellow

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 20:29. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈjel.əʊ/, US /ˈjel.oʊ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English yelwe,[2][3] inherited from Old English ġeolu, geolwe,[2][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *gelwaz,[2][4] the source also of Old Saxon and Old High German gelo, Dutch geel, German gelb and Old Norse gulr.[2][4] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ghel- (“to shine”), with derivatives denoting green and yellow,[2] such as Greek khlōros “greenish yellow” and Latin helvus “yellowish, bay”;[2][4][5] Barnhart adds Lithuanian želvas and Sanskrit hári- “yellowish”.[4] It is related to gold, gall and yolk.[4][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the colour of gold, butter or egg yolk: about 700 in the OED;[8] Old English geolu appears in Beowulf (about 725).[4]

Semantic evolution

Like other colour words, its root probably covered a wider range of colours than the modern word.[6] In Middle English it was also used of a blue-grey or grey colour, of frogs or hazel eyes, to translate Latin caeruleus,[2] and of the complexion in age or disease.[2][8] From the 14th century yellow, rather than green, could be the colour of jealousy,[6] and the OED has “jealous” from 1602.[8] “Cowardly” is attested by 1856, first American, of unknown origin;[2][8] yellow-bellied is from 1924.[2] Yellow press, sensational journalism, is 19th-century.[5] It was applied to people of Asian origin by 1787,[2][8] a use now offensive, and yellow peril translates German die gelbe Gefahr.[2] The verb, Old English geoluwian “to become yellow”, became transitive in the 1590s.[2][8]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – the colour.[8]
  • c. 1000 – of the complexion in age or disease.[8]
  • 1598 – verb, to make yellow.[8]
  • 1602 – jealous.[8]
  • 1787 – of Asian people.[2][8]
  • 1856 – cowardly.[2][8]
  • 1924 – yellow-bellied.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Of the colour of ripe lemons or sunflowers.
  2. (offensive) Of a yellowish or light brown skin colour, or of Asian origin.
  3. (informal) Cowardly.
  4. Of journalism, sensational and unscrupulous.

Noun

  1. The colour between orange and green in the spectrum.
  2. The yolk of an egg.
  3. Something yellow in colour.

Verb

  1. To make or become yellow.

Word family

  • yellowness
  • yellowish
  • yellowly

Usage notes

A rare 17th-century verb yellow, “to yelp, bellow”, is an extension of yell.[9][8]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press