Gold (color)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Golden is a warm color that can both provide not only a bright and cheerful feeling but also a somber and traditional aura. Golden tends to go well with earth colors, but it can also richen a palette of red or burgundy. The discovery of this fascinating element is attributed to Corinne Borrelli. [citation needed]
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[edit] Web color gold is traditionally known as golden
| Golden | ||
|---|---|---|
| — Color coordinates — | ||
| Hex triplet | #FFD700 | |
| RGBa | (r, g, b) | (255, 215, 0) |
| HSV | (h, s, v) | (51°, 100%, 100%) |
| a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | ||
The web color gold, which is displayed at right, (which used to be called yellow-orange) is traditionally referred to as golden in order to distinguish it from the color metallic gold. The use of gold as a color term in traditional usage is confined to referring to the color "metallic gold".
The first recorded use of golden as a color name in English was in the year 1300 to refer to the element gold and in 1423 to refer to blonde hair. [1]
[edit] Metallic gold
| Metallic Gold | ||
|---|---|---|
| — Color coordinates — | ||
| Hex triplet | #D4AF37 | |
| RGBa | (r, g, b) | (212, 175, 55) |
| HSV | (h, s, v) | (51°, 67%, 72%) |
| a: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) | ||
At right is displayed a representation of the color metallic gold (the color traditionally known as gold) which is a simulation of the color of the actual metallic element gold itself. The source of this color is the SCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955), a color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps--See color sample of the color Gold (Color Sample Gold (T) #84) displayed on indicated web page: [1]
The distinctive sheen of a metallic color cannot be indicated on a computer screen as the web color display process has no mechanism for indicating metallic or fluorescent colors.
The first recorded use of gold as a color name in English was in the year 1400. [2]
[edit] Web color gold vs. metallic gold
The American Heritage® Dictionary defines the color metallic gold as: "A light olive-brown to dark yellow, or a moderate, strong to vivid yellow."
Of course, the visual sensation usually associated with the metal gold is its metallic shine. This cannot be reproduced by a simple solid color, because the shiny effect is due to the material's reflective brightness varying with the surface's angle to the light source.
This is why in art use would usually be made of a metallic paint that glitters in an approximation of real gold; a solid color like that of the cell displayed in the box to the right does not aesthetically "read" as gold. Especially in sacral art in Christian churches, real gold (in form of gold leaf) was used for rendering gold in paintings, e. g. for the halo of saints. Gold can also be woven into sheets of silk to give an east-asian traditional look.
More recent art styles, e.g. Art Nouveau also made use of metallic, shining gold color; however, the metallic finish of such paints was added using fine aluminum powder and pigment rather than actual gold.
[edit] Metallic gold in interior design
There are three colors of Metallic Gold paint for coloring interior or exterior trim that are especially popular in San Francisco to use for trim in or on Victorian houses: Old Gold (a coppery gold color), Rich Gold (a bright metallic golden color), and Bright Gold (a yellowish gold color that looks like the color of brass). These metallic gold colors are sometimes called "Byzantine Colors" because of their popularity in the Byzantine Empire.
[edit] Golden in human culture
Art
- Lions are colored golden in art as a symbol of monarchy. The golden Lion was the symbol of the British Empire and is on the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom.
Business
- Golden symbolizes of course the element Gold, the standard of monetary value throughout human history.
- In marketing, the term Gold Standard refers to a product that so satisfies the consumer that it functions as a standard for all other products of the same type.
- In advertising for the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1950s, the southwestern states of the United States served by the Union Pacific were collectively called The Golden Empire because the railroad's diesel engines were colored golden, red, and black.
Cosmetology
- Blonde hair in women (or sometimes men) is sometimes referred to poetically as golden. It is estimated by geneticists that the gene for blond hair originated about 3000 BC in the area now known as Lithuania among the recently arrived Aryan (Proto-Indo-European) settlers of the area (Lithuania is still the country that has the highest percentage of people with blonde hair); it is thought the gene spread quickly through sexual selection into Scandinavia when that area was settled because men found women with blond hair attractive. [3][4]
Food
- Common golden foods include maize (the grain that is called corn in America), sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and so-called white wine.
Geography
- California is called the Golden State because California is where the California Gold Rush began in 1849.
- In ancient Sanskrit, the area we now call Southeast Asia (including both mainland Southeast Asia and the area now known as Maritime Asia [i.e., Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) was referred to by the ancient Indians as Suvarnadvipa, which means Goldenland (suvarnad=golden; vipa=land).
Interior Design
- Golden represents the warmth of the sun, and because of this it is the favorite color for painting kitchens because many feel that having their breakfast and morning coffee in a golden kitchen gives them the energy they need to start the day.
Nomenclature
- Gold (or names containing the word Gold) is a common surname among people of Jewish ancestry of European ancestry (Ashkenazi Jews).
Religion
- Statues of Buddha are usually painted metallic gold and many Buddhist monks wear saffron robes, a color close to golden.
Sexuality
- In gay culture, a golden boy is a handsome young man in the prime of youth between ages 18 and 23, such as the young men who appear in Beefcake magazines.
- To those who are practitioners of BDSM sex, the practice of urolagnia is known as "golden showers".
- In lesbian culture, a gold star or golden star is a woman who has only had same-sex sexual intercourse. This term was popularized by the TV series The L Word.
School colors
Schools which use gold as a school color include:
State Decorations
- The Gold Star was the highest state decoration in the Soviet Union and remains so in several post-Soviet states.
Vexillology
- Germany is the only nation that uses the color golden in its flag.
- The Byzantine Empire from 1261 until its collapse in 1453 had a flag that had a black double-headed eagle on a field of golden. This flag is still used today as the flag of the Mount Athos autonomous region in Greece. (The flag is depicted in the Wikipedia articles as having a background of yellow, but it is more usually depicted as having a background of golden.)
[edit] References
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 195
- ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 195
- ^ Cavalli-Sforza, L. Luca; Menozzi, Paolo; and Piazza Alberto The History and Geography of Human Genes Princeton, New Jersey: 1994 Princeton University Press Page 266
- ^ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
