Chromatlas

Unit 2 · In-betweens

Maroon

HEX

#800000

RGB

128 0 0

HSL

0° 100% 25%

CMYK

0 100 100 50

Maroon or Burgundy?

A dark brownish red. Burgundy is more purple.

Compare: Burgundy

Language

Maroon is French marron, chestnut; in modern French marron simply means brown. It was first used as a color in English in 1789. The other maroon, to strand someone, is unrelated: it comes from Spanish cimarrón, wild or runaway, the name for the free communities escaped slaves built in the Caribbean.

Culture

Maroon became a badge. The maroon beret of airborne troops began with Britain's Parachute Regiment in 1942. Tibetan Buddhist monks, the Dalai Lama among them, wear maroon robes, and Queensland made maroon its official state color in 2003.

Kin

• Burgundy: Maroon leans brown like chestnut; burgundy leans purple like wine
• Chocolate: Two browns named after foods: chestnut and cacao
• Mahogany: Both browns named after trees: chestnut and mahogany

Sources

• Wikipedia, 'Maroon (color)' (first use 1789)
• Etymonline, 'maroon'

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