White
- HEX
- #F7F6F2
- RGB
- 247 246 242
- HSL
- 48° 24% 96%
- CMYK
- 0 0 2 3
Language
White and wheat share a root. Wheat is the white grain, named for its pale flour, and both words go back to an ancient root meaning to shine.
Science
In 1666 Newton began splitting sunlight with prisms and showed that white is not pure: it is every color at once (opticks, spectrum). Goethe spent years arguing he was wrong. Wittgenstein asked a stranger question in Remarks on Colour: why can glass be clear and green, but never clear and white?
History
For about two thousand years, European painters' main white was lead white: brilliant, flexible and poisonous. Zinc white arrived in the 1800s. Titanium white, made in bulk from 1916, reached artists' tubes in 1921 and is now the standard.
Culture
Queen Victoria married in white silk in 1840 and made white bridal gowns fashionable, though French and Italian brides already wore white in the 1830s. In China, white is the traditional color of mourning, and Hindu widows in India have long worn white.
Symbolism
Alchemy's second stage, albedo, washes the blackened matter white. Heraldry calls white argent, silver. The Church wears white at Easter and Christmas (liturgical-colors).
Kin
- Black: Every language names light and dark first; color words start here
- Silver: Heraldry's argent: white and silver are the same tincture
- Red: In China, red for weddings and white for funerals
- Powder blue: Laundry blue: a dash of blue made yellowed linen look whiter
- Ivory: The warm white named after elephant tusk
Sources
- Etymonline, 'white', 'wheat'
- Newton, Opticks (1704); Wittgenstein, Remarks on Colour (1977); Lugg, 'Wittgenstein on transparent white'
- Pigments through the Ages (WebExhibits), 'Titanium white'
- FIT Museum, Fashion History Timeline, '1840: Queen Victoria's wedding dress'
Hex values are screen approximations. Every page lists its sources.