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Topic: The word for the colour red in various languages

Well, I was thinking about (my situation of) being a vegan.

And, I thought, ugh, there is a food colour called cochineal made from insects, ugh.

A red colour.

Then I thought (as I am learning (some) Welsh) that the Welsh word for red is coch.

Oh, I wondered, is the word cochineal derived from the Welsh word?

Well, it appears not to be.

The web page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal

has an Etymology section.

So an etymology section about an entomological topic!

Yes, some readers may remember that joke that I made up!

Yet maybe they have some common source.

I note that red is regarded as an early distinction in languages, as black and white were augmented by red.

Interestingly, English has red, French has rouge, and German has rot. all words beginning with r and the r sound, yet for yellow the words are very different yellow, jaune, gelb.

Perhaps the Welsh word coch derives from Latin.






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  • Alfred
  • Alfred
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Re: The word for the colour red in various languages

William wrote:

The web page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal

has an Etymology section.

The linked page about Opuntia, the cochineal’s home and food source, would benefit from being revised somewhat. In the very first sentence we are told

Opuntia, commonly called the prickly pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae, many known for their flavorful fruit and showy flowers.

but then, just two paragraphs later,

Opuntia is regarded as an aggressive invasive species.

If Opuntia is a genus, how can it be regarded as an invasive species?

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  • Alfred
  • Alfred
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Re: The word for the colour red in various languages

Alfred wrote:

The linked page about Opuntia, the cochineal’s home and food source, would benefit from being revised somewhat.

A reference to O. robusta grabbed my attention because I associate the word ‘robusta’ with coffee. As with the page about the genus, the page about the species Opuntia robusta could do with some revision. At present it tells us that it grows ‘from 5,000 to 10,000 feet’, which struck me as unusually tall for a plant!

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
― Eckhart Tolle