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couleur

Etymology and origin of the French word couleur

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1050, Vie de saint Alexis (color)
Inherited from
Latin color via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin (color)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin color
French couleur

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ku.lœʁ/[1]

Forms

couleur f (plural couleurs)[1] Old French color, culur, couleur from about 1100.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French color, inherited from Latin color (“colour; complexion; outward appearance; specious argument”), from the accusative “colōrem”.[4][5][6][1][7] Rey and the Petit Robert connect the Latin word with cēlō (“to hide”) (compare celer): colour covers and hides the surface of a thing.[5][8] Latin already used it in rhetoric for the character of a style and, pejoratively, for a pretext, Bloch and Wartburg think the sense “pretext” was taken again from Latin, as in “sous couleur de” (“sub colore”).[5][6]

Cognate with Romanian culoare, Italian colore, Spanish color and Portuguese cor; it is feminine from French to Portuguese.[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Life of Saint Alexis (about 1050) perdre sa color is used figuratively, “to lose its character”; the Chanson de Roland has li reis Marsiles ad la culur muée, “King Marsile has changed colour”.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Of the face it is in the Chanson de Roland, gens de couleur, of people who are not white, is found in 1779 and 1790.[4][5][10] In the plural it named a person's livery (1393), the suits of playing cards (1694), liturgical colours (1732) and the national colours (Mirabeau, 1790).[4][5] By metonymy it meant a colouring substance, paint (about 1268).[4]

Painters' couleur locale (1699), the colour proper to each part of a picture, came to mean the characteristic features of a time or place in literature (1772).[4][5] The sense of a specious pretext (about 1280) survives in sous couleur de.[4][5] Couleur politique (1794, Chamfort) is the shade of an opinion, and en voir de toutes les couleurs (1866) “to have a hard time”.[4][5]

Timeline

  • c. 1050 – Color, Life of Saint Alexis.[4]
  • c. 1100 – Of the face, Chanson de Roland.[4]
  • c. 1268 – A colouring substance, Étienne Boileau.[4]
  • c. 1280 – A pretext, Couronnement de Renart.[4]
  • 1393 – A livery.[4]
  • 1694 – Suits of cards.[4]
  • 1699 – Couleur locale, in painting.[4]
  • 1790 – Couleurs nationales, Mirabeau.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. colour: the visual quality of light or of a surface: une couleur vive, de quelle couleur?.[8][1]
  2. A colouring substance, paint, dye: une boîte de couleurs.[4][8]
  3. Complexion: prendre des couleurs, to get some colour, de couleur, not white (of a person).[5][4]
  4. (plural) Colours, flag; livery: les couleurs nationales.[5]
  5. (card games) A suit, (poker) a flush.[1]
  6. Character, tone: couleur locale, couleur politique, annoncer la couleur, to lay one's cards on the table.[5][1]
  7. (literary) Sous couleur de: under the pretext of.[5]
  • colorer
  • coloris
  • incolore
  • Latin color

Usage notes

After a noun it is used as an invariable adjective: des écharpes couleur de feuillage, des gants couleur chair.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 922a
  8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Couleur.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/couleur. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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