More color confusion

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Oct 30, 2007, at 9:49 AM, Evan Bradley wrote:

> According to Wikipedia, "Pure topaz is transparent but is usually
> tinted by impurities; typical topaz is wine or straw-yellow. They may
> also be white, gray, green, blue, pink or reddish-yellow and
> transparent or translucent."
>
> I'm a guy, as well, and I don't keep up with the latest jewelry
> trends, but perhaps the blue has become more popular than the common
> yellow variety, thereby shifting the color associated with the gem
> name?

if this is indeed a trend, the dictionaries are way behind on it.
NOAD2 has the gemstone (in various colors), "a dark yellow color",
and a tropical bird with a yellowish throat.  AHD4 is similar, except
that for the color name it refers you to "citrine" -- "pale-yellow;
lemon colored" or a "translucent, yellow variety of quartz, often
sold as topaz".

some other gemstones come in a variety of colors, only one of which
has been taken over for use as a color name.  for the gemstone
sapphire, wikipedia sez:

The mineral corundum consists of pure aluminium oxide. Trace amounts
of other elements such as iron, titanium and chromium give corundum
their blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange or greenish color. Sapphire
includes any gemstone quality varieties of the mineral corundum
except the fully saturated red variety, which is instead known as
ruby, and the pinkish-orange variety known as padparadscha.

(padparadscha is news to me.)

lots of webhits for "blue topaz".  blue topaz (so labeled) is the
december birthstone (with turquoise as an alternative), while yellow
topaz (usually just labeled "topaz") is the november birthstone.  in
any case, there's some justification for "topaz" picking up an
alternative meaning as a color word.

arnold

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