If we ask what are the most common colors in the world, we can easily say brown among the first 4. Brown, which is one of the dominant colors in most of nature, from soil to wood, appears in every corner of our lives. So, when did we start to call brown, which we encounter in every aspect of our lives, brown? How did coffee, which entered the Ottoman Empire in the 1500s, inspire the name of the color of the soil?
When we think of brown as a color, we see that it has a much older history than coffee. Brown has been present on Earth ever since the Earth ceased to be a fireball and turned into a habitable planet with landmasses. Then let’s take a look at the formerly used names of brown, which is so much in our lives, and the journey of these names that somehow reaches today.
What did the Ottomans, who met coffee in the 1500s, call brown before?
Brown, which is a color between red and black, was called by different names in ancient times. Coffee, which came to the Ottoman Empire in the 1500s, was given different names because it did not exist before. The color we use today as “brown” was used as “hazelnut”. The full meaning of “hazelnut”, a word of Persian origin, was the color of hazelnut shell.
The word “ala” was also used for brown.
The word “ala” used in animals such as fallow deer and trout was also used in the sense of brown. Today, we use this word as “hazel”, which means a little more “colorful”.
What was brown called in old Turkish?
The words “konur” and “kongur” were used to express brown in Old Turkic. When we look at the meaning of these words, we come across the words “get burnt”, “get oily”. You may have heard these words for the first time. Today, we can consider auburn, which is derived from these words and is one of the most popular skin and hair colors. Brown-haired; It is a combination of the words “put” and “take”. When we look at the etymology of the subject, we see that it comes from chestnut color. So all these ingredients give us the brown we have today.
The word “grey” was preferred rather than brown.
We know that the Turks are a nation from the steppes. The steppes with brown tones also inspired the colors. We have used the word grizzly, which we use to express brown, in other points as well. For example, instead of saying brown bear, we come across brown bear as an example.
Today, before we call you brown, we explained what names we use this color with. If you want more content like this, you can write to us in the comments section.
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