In the evolution of English color terms, a gradual semantic shift occurred from largely brightness color concepts to almost exclusively hue concepts. Brightness was the predominant sense of color words in the Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, period (c. 600–1150). Hue was only minimally conceptualized in Old English, and did not become salient in conceptualizations of color until the Middle English period (c. 1150–1500). The set of Old English terms that evolved into English basic color terms followed the same pattern: they were predominantly brightness terms in the Old English period and almost entirely hue terms in the Middle English period. In keeping with the basic color categories theme of this volume, the evolution of English basic terms will be highlighted in this chapter.

Secondary or non-basic terms, which were uniformly hue terms, did not occur in the Anglo-Saxon period, but entered the English color vocabulary for the first time late in the Middle English period (1350–1500). This was the turning point in the English color shift. Secondary color terms increased gradually during the Early Modern English period (1500–1700) and the Modern English period (1700–present) until the second half of the nineteenth century, after which they increased rapidly.

Brightness to hue

The color shift is evident in two sets of coordinated lexical innovations. The first concerns the evolution of Old English brightness terms to Middle English hue terms, and the second deals with the advent and development of secondary color terms.