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.




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