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> what word was used for the color orange

I once answered this question for Polish [0]:

1. Find the Latin word for the color orange: "luteus".

2. Find Polish words corresponding to the Latin word in a scanned Latin-Polish dictionary from 1644.

3. Find Latin words corresponding to the Polish words in the Polish-Latin volume of the dictionary.

4. If new words found, GOTO 2

The main answer was "fawn", the color of deer. Besides "yellow-red" and "red-yellow", other words were based on red pine mushroom [1], fox, honey, fire, saffron, and gold.

[0] https://oslowach.wordpress.com/2018/11/17/jak-sie-przedtem-n...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactarius_deliciosus




At least in Swedish the word "orange" for colour is a recent import. That color was called "fire yellow" (brandgul) when I was a child.




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