Art & MusicGreek → English
Ochre
/ˈoʊkər/noun
An earthy iron-oxide pigment running from yellow through red-brown, and the colour it makes.
The Greek roots
ὤχρα
ṓchra
yellow earth pigment
Literally: “pale yellow earth”
Follow a root:ὤχρα1 word
The story of the word
The oldest paint people used, and the name comes from paleness rather than from earth: ὠχρός in Homer is the colour a face goes when fear drains it. Roasting yellow ochre drives off the water in the mineral and turns it red, a conversion worked out in the Palaeolithic and still behind burnt sienna on a modern palette. Ochre-stained burials in Europe and Australia go back tens of thousands of years.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
In a sentence
The whole street was rendered in a soft ochre that held the evening light.