couleur French · revision 17285

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1050, Vie de saint Alexis (color)|origins=la color}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ku.lœʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''couleur''' ''f'' (plural couleurs)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|color]], [[m|fro|culur]], ''couleur'' from about 1100.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|color]], [[inh|la|color|t=colour; complexion; outward appearance; specious argument]], from the accusative “colōrem”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|2, 922a) Rey and the Petit Robert connect the Latin word with [[m|la|cēlō|t=to hide]] (compare [[celer]]): colour covers and hides the surface of a thing.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007) 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”).^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ Cognate with [[ro|culoare]], [[it|colore]], [[es|color]] and [[pt|cor]]; it is feminine from French to Portuguese.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(REW 1935)

+

+ ==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”.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==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.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(BHVF) 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).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) By metonymy it meant a colouring substance, paint (about 1268).^(TLFi)

+

+ 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).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) The sense of a specious pretext (about 1280) survives in ''sous couleur de''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) ''Couleur politique'' (1794, Chamfort) is the shade of an opinion, and ''en voir de toutes les couleurs'' (1866) “to have a hard time”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1050 – ''Color'', ''Life of Saint Alexis''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1100 – Of the face, ''Chanson de Roland''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1268 – A colouring substance, Étienne Boileau.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1280 – A pretext, ''Couronnement de Renart''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1393 – A livery.^(TLFi)

+ * 1694 – Suits of cards.^(TLFi)

+ * 1699 – ''Couleur locale'', in painting.^(TLFi)

+ * 1790 – ''Couleurs nationales'', Mirabeau.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|colour]]: the visual quality of light or of a surface: ''une couleur vive'', ''de quelle couleur?''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A colouring substance, paint, dye: ''une boîte de couleurs''.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # Complexion: ''prendre des couleurs'', to get some colour, ''de couleur'', not white (of a person).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)

+ # (plural) Colours, flag; livery: ''les couleurs nationales''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''(card games)'' A [[m|en|suit]], ''(poker)'' a [[m|en|flush]].^(Wiktionary)

+ # Character, tone: ''couleur locale'', ''couleur politique'', ''annoncer la couleur'', to lay one's cards on the table.^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(literary)'' ''Sous couleur de'': under the pretext of.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[colorer]]

+ * [[coloris]]

+ * [[incolore]]

+ * [[la|color]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ After a noun it is used as an invariable adjective: ''des écharpes couleur de feuillage'', ''des gants couleur chair''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}