Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Chartreuse (color)

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Hex triplet
  
#7FFF00

CMYK   (c, m, y, k)
  
(50, 0, 100, 0)

Source
  
X11

sRGB  (r, g, b)
  
(127, 255, 0)

HSV       (h, s, v)
  
(90°, 100%, 100%)

Chartreuse (color)

Chartreuse ( /ʃɑːrˈtruːz/, /ʃɑːrˈtruːs/ or /ʃɑːˈtrɜːz/; [ʃaʁtʁøz]) is a color between yellow and green that was named because of its resemblance to the green color of one of the French liqueurs called green chartreuse, introduced in 1764. Similarly, chartreuse yellow is a yellow color mixed with a small amount of green that was named because of its resemblance to the color of one of the French liqueurs called yellow chartreuse, introduced in 1838.

Contents

Yellow is perceived when the yellow-green receptor is stimulated slightly more than the blue-green receptor. The eye is most sensitive to green light (550 nm) because green stimulates two of the three kinds of cones, L and M, almost equally.

Etymology

The French word chartreuse means "charterhouse". The monasteries that the monks of the Carthusian order (who started producing Chartreuse liqueur in 1764) live in, the first one of which was established in 1082 by Saint Bruno, are called charter houses because they were chartered—and given generous material support—by the Duke of Burgundy known as Philip the Bold when he took over the area in 1378. Philip the Bold's elaborately decorated tomb was initially installed at a Carthusian charterhouse when he died in 1404.

Chartreuse (web color)

At right is displayed the web color chartreuse.

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.

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".

"Chartreuse Green" is also listed in Plochere Color System (1948).

In a 1956 edition of Billboard, a juke box 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 Color: Universal Language and Dictionary of Names (1976), "Chartreuse Green" is listed under "116. Brilliant Yellow Green".

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.

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 yellow

The color name chartreuse yellow, also known as chartreuse (traditional) or traditional chartreuse, refers to the much more yellowish tone of chartreuse than the web color "chartreuse" that was generally regarded as "chartreuse" in the United States (and still is regarded as such by many in that country) before the X11 color chartreuse (shown above) was formulated in 1987.

The first recorded use of chartreuse (meaning the color that is now called chartreuse yellow) in American English was in 1892.

In the book Color Standards and Color Nomenclature (1912), "Chartreuse Yellow" is listed and illustrated.

Also, MotoGP's Valentino Rossi also uses a variation of chartreuse yellow to highlight his bike and racing leathers/helmet.

Nyanza

The color nyanza is displayed at right.

The first recorded use of nyanza as a color name in English was in 1892.

Mindaro

Displayed at right is the color mindaro.

The first use in English of the color name mindaro was in 2001, when it was formulated as one of the colors on the Xona.com Color List.

Pear

Pear is a desaturated chartreuse yellow color that resembles the color of the exterior surface of Anjou or Bartlett pears.

Lemon Lime

Lemon Lime is a fluorescent chartreuse color that refers to a theoretical combination of the two colors of the lemon and lime fruit rinds. Such a name might have been popularized by the advertising of various carbonated soft drinks such as Sprite, 7 Up and Sierra Mist, although all three of these drinks actually appear clear and colorless.

Lime

Lime is a color that is a representation of the color of the citrus fruit called limes.

The first recorded use of lime green as a color name in English was in 1890.

Green-yellow

Displayed at right is the web color green-yellow, a light tint of chartreuse.

Spring bud

Displayed at right is the color spring bud.

This was the color that was traditionally called "spring green" before the web color spring green 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

Displayed at right is the web color lawn green, a bright tint of chartreuse.

Pistachio

Displayed at right is the color pistachio, also called pistachio green, a representation of the color of the interior meat of a pistachio nut. It is also a representation of the color of pistachio ice cream, one of the flavors of ice cream in spumoni, and of pistachio pudding.

The first recorded use of pistachio green as a color name in English was in 1789.

Source of color: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Pistachio Green (Color Sample #135).

Limerick

Displayed at right is the color limerick.

The first use of the color name limerick was in 2001, when it was formulated as one of the colors on the Xona.com Color List.

Yellow-green

Displayed at right is the web color yellow-green, 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), shown above. Now, the term "yellow-green" is used to refer to this medium desaturated shade of chartreuse.

The color of goose droppings is known as caca d'oie in French, and is a yellowish-green shade.

Apple green

Displayed at right is the color apple green, 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 decided to assign line colors to all the routes within the major trunk lines in the Central Business District, plus different colors for services not entering Manhattan. 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.

Source of color: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Apple Green (Color Sample #115).

Turtle green

Displayed at right is the color turtle green, a representation of the color of turtles.

Source of color: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Turtle Green (Color Sample #120).

Avocado

Avocado is a color that is a representation of the color of the outer surface of an avocado.

The color "avocado" is a dark yellow-green color.

Avocado was a common color for metal surfaces (including automobiles and household appliances), as well as the color harvest gold, during the whole decade of the 1970s. They were both also popular colors for shag carpets. Both colors (as well as shag carpets) went out of style by the early 1980s.

Olive

Olive is a dark shade of yellow typically seen on green olives. Shades of olive, such as olive drab or OD green, are frequently used for camouflage, or by the military in general. The complementary color of olive is light blue.

Kombu green

The color kombu green is displayed at right.

The color kombu green is a representation of the color of kombu, edible kelp from the family Laminariaceae widely eaten in East Asia.

The source of this color is the "Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #19-0417 TPX—Kombu Green.

Algae

  • Yellow-green algae, also called xanthophytes, are a class of algae in the Heterokontophyta division. Most live in freshwater, but some are found in marine and soil habitats. They vary from single-celled flagellates to simple colonial and filamentous forms. Unlike other heterokonts, the chloroplasts of yellow-green algae do not contain fucoxanthin, which is why they have a lighter color.

    • Traffic Safety

  • Chartreuse Yellow is used on traffic safety vests to provide increased visibility for employees working near traffic. The Chartreuse Yellow background material, together with a retro-reflective satisfy the ANSI 107-2010 standard since 1999. Traffic Safety vest ANSI Standards were adopted as an OSHA (Occupational Safety Health Administration) requirement in 2008 (23 CFR part 634)

    • Electronics

  • The early green LEDs are now sometimes called chartreuse to distinguish them from more modern, deeper-green LEDs.

    • Film

  • The 1960 Universal film Chartroose Caboose featured a "bright green" colored train car.

    • Firefighting

  • Since about 1973, a sort of fluorescent chartreuse yellow has been adopted as the color of fire engines in parts of the United States and elsewhere. The use of chartreuse fire engines began when New York ophthalmologist Stephen Solomon produced research claiming that sparkling bright lime-yellow paint would boost the night time visibility of emergency vehicles compared to those painted the traditional fire engine red. The reason for this is the Purkinje Effect, i.e., the cones do not function as efficiently in dim light, so red objects appear to be black. In Australia and New Zealand this form of chartreuse yellow is also known as "ACT Yellow" as this is the color of the fire engines in the Australian Capital Territory.

    • Literature

  • In 2012, Chelsea Handler began to author a spoof on the popular book series 50 Shades of Grey called 50 Shades of Chartreuse: This Time It's Personal.

    • Music

  • Jazz/Jump Blues saxophonist, singer, and bandleader Louis Jordan recorded the song "(You Dyed Your Hair) Chartreuse." Composed by J. Leslie McFarland and Billy Moore, the song is about a girl who dyes her hair "chartreuse." Although she thinks that the color is "mighty cute," the speaker suggests that the change of color is a ridiculous act of rebellion.
  • A song on the Homestuck album 'The Felt' is named Chartreuse Rewind, in reference to the color associated with the album, its subject matter, and by extension the traditional color of the felt on a billiards table.
  • American blues-rock band ZZ Top recorded a song called "Chartreuse" for their 2012 album La Futura.
  • American indie-pop duo Capital Cities recorded a song called "Chartreuse" for their 2013 album In a Tidal Wave of Mystery.
  • In CW McCall's song Convoy, one of the vehicles participating in the convoy is a chartreuse VW Microbus, which is assigned by the singer/speaker as an escort to a truck hauling dynamite (due to the microbus carrying "eleven long-haired friends of Jesus").

    • Vexillology

  • When Bharatpur was a princely state, it was the only political entity ever to have a chartreuse yellow colored flag.

    • Video games

  • The Chartreuse Hall is a hydroponics section in the game No One Lives Forever, in the Low Earth Orbit mission.

    • Wrapping the spectrum into a color wheel

    If the visible spectrum is wrapped to form a color wheel, chartreuse (additive tertiary) appears midway between yellow and green:

    References

    Chartreuse (color) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA