Re: Does the colour ever precede - and therefore give the name to - the thing?
Once-- at least! Compounds formed from the element chromium are brilliantly colored green, red and yellow. So Vauquelin, a french chemist who first described the pure element, named it chrome, after the greek khroma, color! (the pure element is a greyish white.) its also used as a mordant when dying cloth.
it was soon latinize to chromium.
chrome green is a rich medium green (racing green it is sometimes called-- similar to the green silks worn by War Emblems jockey)
Chrome yellow is a bright, brilliant yellow (safety yellow) and is often seen in underpaints or primers, since it offers rust protection.
chrome red is slightly orangish red, not a pure red, and most certainly not a blue red.
the color sense of khroma is also used in commercial words, like koda-chrome for kodak brand of color film.
chromogen was a term for a small substantance that was or could be pigmented with dye, and chromosomes were first seen because they absorbed a dye!
lots of other chrome/chroma words all to do with color.
most art stores would have these pigments, if you wanted to see them first hand.
Colours
Re: Colours
