Shades of
chartreuse are listed below. Historically, many of these colors have gone under the name of either yellow or green, as the specifics of their color composition was not known until later.
Wrapping the spectrum into a color wheel
In a color proximity sense, a primary color has a color range of 120° (60° on each side of the color's hue) and any color has to be within that range to be considered a variation of that color. Secondary colors have a color range of 60° (30°), tertiary colors have a color range of 30° (15°), quaternary colors have a color range of 15° (7.5°), quinary colors have a color range of 7.5° (3.75°), and so on. Because chartreuse is located at a hue angle of 90°, it has a tertiary color range of 75° and 105°, and any color out of this range is more related to
yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...
or
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...
than chartreuse. If the visible spectrum is wrapped to form a color wheel, chartreuse
additive tertiary appears midway between
yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...
and
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...
:
Definitions of chartreuse
Chartreuse (web color)
Chartreuse green was codified to refer to this brighter color when the
X11 colors were formulated in 1987; by the early 1990s, they became known as the
X11 web colors. The
web color ''chartreuse'' is the color precisely halfway between green and yellow, so it is 50% green and 50% yellow. It is one of the tertiary colors of the
HSV color wheel, also known as the
RGB color wheel. Another name for this color is chartreuse green.
The term ''chartreuse'' is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as: "A shade of colour; a pale apple-green". The dictionary gives a quotation in the British publication ''
Western Daily Press'' (26 Dec. 1884) Vol. 7 No. 5 as being the earliest occurrence found in print of the term 'chartreuse' used as the name of a color. However the source does not define or describe the color referred to.
"Chartreuse Green" is also listed in ''Plochere Color System'' (1948).
In ''Color: Universal Language and Dictionary of Names'' (1976), "Chartreuse Green" is listed under "116. Brilliant Yellow Green".
In ''The Domestic Monthly'' (1885) is written, "The delicate, pale green, with a yellow tinge, entitled 'Chartreuse,' is a rival to the renewed apple green," and, "The new shade of Chartreuse green, from light to dark, is lovely in the large feather fans. ... Some of the corded silks have fancy stripes in a combination of colors such as ... mousse and Chartreuse, which is the stylish yellow green."
In ''The Ladies' Home Journal'' of May 1889, is written, "Chantilly cloaks come shaped like the old-fashioned rotonde, with collar of narrow lace, and are worn over a lining of chartreuse green or jonquil yellow."
In ''The Millinery Trade Review'' (1889) is written, "From Madame Catlin of Paris, a hat of velvet in moss-green of medium tone, or of strong Chartreuse-green."
In ''The Mineral Industry'' (1898) is written, "The characteristic twin colors of a few doubly refractive gems will prove of interest ... tourmaline green (chartreuse green and bluish green).
In ''Dry Goods Reporter'' (1905), it is noted under "Choosing an Easter Hat" — "Chartreuse greens are among the colors hardest of all to combine artistically, and yet with the new popular bluet are charming."
In ''Pure Products'' (1910) is written, "The following colors can be bought in powder form ... chartreuse green".
In a 1956 edition of
''Billboard'', a
jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to sele ...
is advertised as being available in "Delft blue, cherry red, embered charcoal, chartreuse green, bright sand, canary yellow, atoll coral and night-sky black."
In 1988, Margaret Walch, director of the
Color Association of the United States is reported to have said, "The hottest color out there now is an ugly chartreuse green.... It suggests what we don't have: nature, youth, energy, growth."
Chartreuse (traditional)
The first recorded use of ''chartreuse'' for the color that is now called ''chartreuse yellow'' in American English was in 1892.
[Aloys John Maerz; Morris Rea Paul (1930) ''A Dictionary of Color'', p. 192, New York: McGraw-Hill]
In the book ''Color Standards and Color Nomenclature'' (1912), "Chartreuse Yellow" is listed and illustrated.
Variations of chartreuse
Bright green
Bright green is on the color wheel approximately one-third of the way between
chartreuse green and
harlequin (color #3FFF00) (closer to chartreuse green than to harlequin). Bright green represents a visual stimulus of 556
nanometer
330px, Different lengths as in respect to the molecular scale.
The nanometre (international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: nm) or nanometer (American and British English spelling differences#-re, ...
s on the
visual spectrum as measured on the
CIE chromaticity diagram
The CIE 1931 color spaces are the first defined quantitative links between distributions of wavelengths in the electromagnetic visible spectrum, and physiologically perceived colors in human color vision. The mathematical relationships that defi ...
. The X11 color ''green'' is somewhat similar to bright green, with a hex triplet of #00FF00, compared to bright green's triplet of #66FF00.
The color bright green is used to represent
bright green environmentalism or the
Viridian design movement.
Yellow-green
Yellow-green is a dull medium shade of chartreuse.
Before the X11 colors were formulated in 1987, the color term ''yellow-green'' was used to refer to the color that is now designated as the web color ''chartreuse'' (''chartreuse green''). Now, the term "yellow-green" is used to refer to this medium desaturated shade of chartreuse.
Green-yellow
''Green-yellow'' is a mixture of the colors green and yellow. It is a
web color. It is a light
tint of
chartreuse.
"Green-yellow" is an official Crayola crayon color which was formulated in 1958.
Green-yellow is near the center of the light
spectrum
A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors ...
visible to the human eye, and is very eye-catching. For this reason, many emergency vehicles and uniforms exhibit green-yellow.
Lime
Lime is a
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
that is sometimes referred to as a representation of the color of the citrus fruit called
limes
Limes may refer to:
* the plural form of lime (disambiguation)
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a ...
. However, in its original form, it referred to the colour of the samara fruits of the lime or linden tree (species in the genus ''
Tilia
''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Britain and Ireland they ...
'').
The first recorded use of ''lime green'' as a color name in English was in 1890.
[
]
Rifle green
The color ''rifle green'' is displayed at right.
The source of this color is the Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX) color list, color No. 19-0419 TPX—Rifle green.
The first recorded use of ''rifle green'' as a color name in English was in 1858.
Rifle green is so named from the distinctive color of the uniform of rifle regiments (a form of light infantry
Light infantry refers to certain types of lightly equipped infantry throughout history. They have a more mobile or fluid function than other types of infantry, such as heavy infantry or line infantry. Historically, light infantry often foug ...
) of a number of European armies, and is still used as such by rifle regiments in many Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
armies, such as the Rifles
The Rifles is an infantry regiment of the British Army. Formed in 2007, it consists of four Regular battalions and three Reserve battalions, plus a number of companies in other Army Reserve battalions. Each battalion of The Rifles was formerl ...
and Royal Gurkha Rifles
The Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) is a rifle regiment of the British Army, forming part of the Brigade of Gurkhas. Unlike other regiments in the British Army, RGR soldiers are recruited from Nepal, which is neither a dependent territory of the Uni ...
of the British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...
and the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada.
Rifle green was originally adopted by rifle regiments in the 18th century, including the famous 95th Rifles of the Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...
. As the traditional role of riflemen was that of marksmen and skirmishers who attacked behind the cover of trees, a dark green uniform was adopted as an early form of camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
, as opposed to the colorful uniforms worn by other soldiers of the period. The vegetable based dyes used during the 18th and early 19th centuries were not fast
Fast or FAST may refer to:
* Fast (noun), high speed or velocity
* Fast (noun, verb), to practice fasting, abstaining from food and/or water for a certain period of time
Acronyms and coded Computing and software
* ''Faceted Application of Subje ...
, frequently fading after exposure to the elements to lighter shades of green or even brown. While this had advantages in terms of reduced visibility on active service, it did not make for a smart appearance on the peace-time parade ground. Accordingly, the color of the rifleman's uniform was progressively darkened until it approached black. After 1890 the development of chemical dyes permitted the adoption of the stable shade of rifle green now worn. In the U.S. armed forces, the green beret may be worn only by soldiers awarded the Special Forces Tab, signifying they have been qualified as special forces soldiers. The special forces beret is officially designated "beret, man's, wool, rifle green, army shade 297". Previously, rifle green uniforms had been issued to Hiram Berdan's elite 1st
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
and 2nd United States Sharpshooters
The 2nd United States Sharpshooters was a sharpshooter regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. From 1861 to January 1863 they were members of the " First Iron Brigade" also known as the "Iron Brigade of the East".
S ...
during the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
.
Rifle green was the official uniform colour of the Canadian Forces
}
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force.
...
(CF) after unification; it was thereafter generally referred to as "CF green"; indeed, the service dress uniform of the day was referred to as "CF greens". After the introduction of the distinctive environmental uniform (DEU), rifle green remained as the uniform colour of the winter land environment DEU; a short-lived tan uniform was worn in summer. After the demise of the tans, the rifle green DEU was worn year-round. Rifle green was also the colour of the uniform worn by the Northern Irish Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Roya ...
(RUC) until 2001 where the RUC was renamed the PSNI and while the uniform color remained the same, terminology changed to " bottle green".
Rifle green is 19–0419 TPX in the Pantone palette, or hex code #444C38 in the sRGB
sRGB is a standard RGB (red, green, blue) color space that HP and Microsoft created cooperatively in 1996 to use on monitors, printers, and the World Wide Web. It was subsequently standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission ...
color space, as shown above.
Spring bud
Spring bud was the color that was traditionally called "spring green" before the web color ''spring green
Spring green is a color that was traditionally considered to be on the yellow side of green, but in modern computer systems based on the RGB color model is halfway between cyan and green on the color wheel.
The modern spring green, when plot ...
'' was formulated in 1987.
The first recorded use of ''spring green'' as a color name in English (meaning the color that is now called ''spring bud'') was in 1766.
Lawn green
Lawn green is a bright tint of chartreuse.
Apple green
Apple green is a representation of the color of the outer skin of a Granny Smith apple. A darker version of this color has been used for the IRT Lexington Avenue Line since June 1979, when the NYCTA
The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, the TA, or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. Pa ...
decided to assign line colors to all the routes within the major trunk lines in the Central Business District
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
, plus different colors for services not entering Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. By doing this, they scrapped the 1967 colors that were assigned separately to each service.
The first recorded use of ''apple green'' as a color name in English was in 1648.
Kelly green
''Kelly green'' is an American term. The name derives from the fact that the surname ''Kelly'', as well as the color green, are both popular in Ireland. The use of the term as a color name occurred at least as far back as March 1911 when it appeared in ''The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' and newspapers across the country as the new color of fashion.
Turtle green
Displayed at right is the color turtle chartreuse, or turtle green, a representation of the color of turtles.
The normalized color coordinates
Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Most commonly it refers to:
* Normalization (sociology) or social normalization, the process through which ideas and behaviors that may fall outside o ...
for turtle green are identical to moss green, first recorded as a color name in English in 1884.[
]
Pistachio
Pistachio is a dull yellowish-green color resembling the pistachio
The pistachio (, ''Pistacia vera''), a member of the cashew family, is a small tree originating from Central Asia and the Middle East. The tree produces seeds that are widely consumed as food.
''Pistacia vera'' is often confused with other spe ...
nut.
Avocado
Avocado is a dark yellow-green color that is a representation of the color of the outer surface of an avocado
The avocado (''Persea americana'') is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family ( Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for ...
. Avocado, along with other earthy tones like harvest gold
''Harvest Gold'' is a 1945 Australian industrial film about a farmer who clings to old methods of production.
Synopsis
The film explores various aspects of mechanical farming, from clearing the land to harvesting, and deals with the clash of a ...
and burnt orange, was a common color for consumer goods like automobiles
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded ...
, shag carpets, and household appliance
A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation.
Appliances are divided into three ...
s during the 1970s.
Kombu green
The color kombu chartreuse, or kombu green, is displayed at right.
The color ''kombu green'' is a representation of the color of kombu
''Konbu'' (from ja, 昆布, konbu or kombu) is edible kelp mostly from the family Laminariaceae and is widely eaten in East Asia. It may also be referred to as ''dasima'' ( ko, 다시마) or ''haidai'' ().
Kelp features in the diets of many ...
, edible kelp
Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera. Despite its appearance, kelp is not a plant - it is a heterokont, a completely unrelated group of organisms.
Kelp grows in "underwa ...
from the family Laminariaceae
Laminariaceae is a family of brown algal seaweed
Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and '' Chlor ...
widely eaten in East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...
.
The source of this color is the "Pantone
Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphi ...
Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #19-0417 TPX—Kombu Green.
Asparagus
''Asparagus'' is a tone of chartreuse that is named after the vegetable
Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the edible flower, flowers, ...
. Crayola created this color in 1993 as one of the 16 to be named in the Name the Color Contest.
It is also the color of a wild asparagus plant blowing in the wind of the 1949 classic film ''Sands of Iwo Jima
''Sands of Iwo Jima'' is a 1949 war film starring John Wayne that follows a group of United States Marines from training to the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. The film, which also features John Agar, Adele Mara and Forrest Tucker, ...
''.
Another name for this color is ''asparagus green''. The first recorded use of "asparagus green" as a color name in English was in 1805.
Artichoke
Artichoke is a color that is a representation of the color of a raw fresh uncooked artichoke
The globe artichoke (''Cynara cardunculus'' var. ''scolymus'' ),Rottenberg, A., and D. Zohary, 1996: "The wild ancestry of the cultivated artichoke." Genet. Res. Crop Evol. 43, 53–58. also known by the names French artichoke and green articho ...
. Another name for this color is ''artichoke chartreuse'' or ''artichoke green''.
The first recorded use of "artichoke green" as a color name in English was in 1905.[Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 ]McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes refere ...
p. 189; Color Sample of Artichoke Green: p. 63 Plate 20 Color Sample B2
Moss green
''Moss green'' is a tone of chartreuse that resembles moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta ('' sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and ...
.
The first recorded use of ''moss green'' as a color name in English was in 1884.[Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 ]McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes refere ...
p. 199; Color Sample of Moss Green: p. 65 Plate 21 Color Sample L2
The normalized color coordinates
Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Most commonly it refers to:
* Normalization (sociology) or social normalization, the process through which ideas and behaviors that may fall outside o ...
for moss green are identical to turtle green.
Dark moss green
Reseda green
Reseda chartreuse, or Reseda green, is a shade of greyish chartreuse in the classic range of colors of the German RAL colour standard
RAL is a colour management system used in Europe that is created and administrated by the German (RAL non-profit LLC), which is a subsidiary of the German . In colloquial speech RAL refers to the RAL Classic system, mainly used for varnish a ...
, in which it is named "RAL 6011".Overview of all RAL Classic colours
RAL gemeinnützige GmbH. Accessed January 2016.
The name derives from the color of the leaves of '' Reseda odorata'', commonly known as mignonette.[Nikolas Davies, Erkki Jokiniemi (2008)]
''Dictionary of Architecture and Building Construction''
Amsterdam; Boston; London: Elsevier
Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as '' The Lancet'', '' Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', ...
/Architectural Press
Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', '' Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...
. .
See also
* Lime (color)
* List of colors
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chartreuse (Color)
Tertiary colors
Quaternary colors
Shades of green