Colors
Your ancestor's violet hose may actually have been blue. The following colors are from Everyday Life in Renaissance England from 1485-1649 by Kathy Lynn Emerson, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and Alexander Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary.
- abraham.
- auburn
- beasar.
- brown, the color of a bezoar stone (concretions found in the systems of animals and thought to have magical powers)
- bice.
- blue; formerly (Middle English) brownish or dark grey
- bleeche.
- orange
- brassel.
- brownish-red
- Bristol, bristol.
- red
- cane.
- ligth yellow
- carnation.
- flesh color
- claie-color.
- deep cream
- crane.
- greyish white
- dead Spaniard.
- neutral
- gingerline.
- reddish violet
- goose turd.
- yellowish green
- hair, maiden hair.
- bright tan
- heare.
- hare color - brown
- horseflesh.
- pinkish brown or bronze
- incarnate.
- light rosy pink or crimson
- isabelle, isabella.
- light buff
- Kendal, kendal.
- green
- Lincoln, lincoln.
- bright green, the color used by archers; named for it's city of origin
- lion-tawny.
- ochre-orange
- lusty gallant.
- light red
- maiden's blush.
- delicate pink
- maiden hair, hair.
- bright tan
- milk-and-water.
- bluish-white
- murrey.
- purplish red; mulberry
- orange-tawny.
- orange-brown, dark yellow
- parti-colored.
- marbled; variegated
- peach-color.
- deep pink, the color of peach blossom
- pease-porridge tawny.
- brownish green
- plunket.
- sky blue or light greyish blue
- popinjay.
- parrot-colored, us. green but may be blue
- primrose.
- pale yellow
- puke.
- dirty brown; also dark or inky
- rat.
- grey
- roy.
- bright tawny
- russet.
- dark or reddish brown; reddish. The fabric russet may be gray.
- sanguine.
- blood red
- sheep-colour.
- off-white, natural
- stammel.
- red
- tawny.
- dusky brown-orange; yellowish dark color
- violet.
- indigo
- virli.
- vivid green
- wachet, watchet.
- pale blue, sometimes pale greenish blue
- wash-coloured.
- probably pale blue; 'wash' was a term for stale urine used a fixative for indigo dye
- whey.
- bluish-white.
- willow.
- light green or grey-green
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