The web colorgold, which is displayed at right, (which is sometimes also called orange-yellow) is traditionally referred to as golden in order to distinguish it from the color metallic gold. The use of gold as a color term in traditional usage is confined to referring to the color "metallic gold" (shown below).
The first recorded use of golden as a color name in English was in the year 1300 to refer to the element gold and in 1423 to refer to blonde hair.[1]
Gold (metallic gold)
At right is displayed a representation of the color metallic gold (the color traditionally known as gold) which is a simulation of the color of the actual metallic element gold itself?gold shade.
The source of this color is the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955), a color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps--See color sample of the color Gold (Color Sample Gold (T) #84) displayed on indicated web page: http://tx4.us/nbs/nbs-g.htm
The distinctive sheen of a metallic color cannot be indicated on a computer screen as the web color display process has no mechanism for indicating metallic or fluorescent colors.
The first recorded use of gold as a color name in English was in the year 1400.[2]
Web color gold vs. metallic gold
The American Heritage Dictionary defines the color metallic gold as: "A light olive-brown to dark yellow, or a moderate, strong to vivid yellow."
Of course, the visual sensation usually associated with the metal gold is its metallic shine. This cannot be reproduced by a simple solid color, because the shiny effect is due to the material's reflective brightness varying with the surface's angle to the light source.
This is why in art use would usually be made of a metallic paint that glitters in an approximation of real gold; a solid color like that of the cell displayed in the box to the right does not aesthetically "read" as gold. Especially in sacral art in Christian churches, real gold (in form of gold leaf) was used for rendering gold in paintings, e. g. for the halo of saints. Gold can also be woven into sheets of silk to give an east-Asian traditional look.
More recent art styles, e.g. Art Nouveau also made use of metallic, shining gold color; however, the metallic finish of such paints was added using fine aluminum powder and pigment rather than actual gold.
Metallic gold in interior design
There are three colors of Metallic Gold paint for coloring interior or exterior trim that are especially popular in San Francisco to use for trim in or on Victorian houses: Old Gold (a coppery gold color), Rich Gold (a bright metallic golden color), and Bright Gold (a yellowish gold color that looks like the color of brass). These metallic gold colors are sometimes called Byzantine Colors because of their popularity in the Byzantine Empire.
Old gold is a dark yellow, which varies from light olive or olive brown to deep or strong yellow. The widely-accepted color "Old Gold" is on the darker rather than the lighter side of this range.
The first recorded use of old gold as a color name in English was in the early 1800s (exact year uncertain). [4]
In stock market terminology, a golden share is a nominal share which is able to outvote all other shares in certain specified circumstances, often held by a government organization, in a government company undergoing the process of privatization and transformation into a stock-company.
In marketing, the term Gold Standard refers to a product that so satisfies the consumer that it functions as a standard for all other products of the same type.
In advertising for the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1950s, the southwestern states of the United States served by the Union Pacific were collectively called The Golden Empire because the railroad's diesel engines were and are colored golden, red, and black. Ads with maps showing the Union Pacific's Golden Empire colored golden were placed in many popular mass-circulation magazines.
Blonde hair in women (or sometimes men) is sometimes referred to poetically as golden. It is estimated by geneticists that the gene for blond hair originated about 3000 BC in the area now known as Lithuania among the recently arrived Aryan (Proto-Indo-European) settlers of the area (Lithuania is still the country that has the highest percentage of people with blonde hair); it is thought the gene spread quickly through sexual selection into Scandinavia when that area was settled because men found women with blond hair attractive.[9][10]
A past era during which the highest quality art was produced or in mythology during which humans were believed to have lived a Utopian lifestyle, is called a golden age.
In ancient Sanskrit, the area we now call Southeast Asia (including both mainland Southeast Asia and the area now known as Maritime Asia [i.e., Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) was referred to by the people of ancient India as Suvarnadvipa, which means Golden island (suvarna=golden; dvipa=island). [14] The name Suvarnadvipa comes originally from the fact that there were rich gold deposits on the island of Sumatra. The GreekgeographerPtolemy mistakenly applied the Ancient Greek name for gold, Chryse, to the adjacent country of Malaya. [15]
In the traditional national anthem of Iran, Iran is called our golden country. The first lines of the anthem are: "Oh Iran, our golden country, your land is the wellspring of art. Let the thoughts of your enemies be far from you." [16]
The Golden Gate (Porta Aurea) was the Imperial entrance gate of the Walls of Constantinople and the largest among the 55 gates around the city walls which protected Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). It had three arches and was plated in solid gold. [17]
Golden represents the warmth of the sun, and because of this it is the favorite color for painting kitchens because many feel that having their breakfast and morning coffee in a golden kitchen gives them the energy they need to start the day.
Golden is a warm color that can both provide not only a bright and cheerful feeling but also a somber, traditional, and religious aura. Golden tends to go well with earth colors, but it can also enrich a palette of red or burgundy.
The capital city of Atlantis is said to have been called The City of the Golden Gates. [18] Because of this, (and because of the existence of the Transamerica Pyramid, which is like the pyramid that is said to have existed as one of the major structures in the City of the Golden Gates, it is thought by some New Age people that a number of the inhabitants of San Francisco (the City by the Golden Gate) are reincarnated from Atlantis. [19]
The 50th wedding anniversary is called the Golden Anniversary and one is expected to give gifts made of gold to a couple celebrating that anniversary. By extension, the 50th anniversary of any important event is called the golden jubilee.
King Midas, in Greek Mythology, was said to have the Midas touch, i.e., the ability to turn everything into gold (the golden touch). This ability became a curse for him after he turned his daughter to gold, and he was cured by Dionysus.
Fans of the National Football League will note the Pittsburgh Steelers as having gold as a color. The gold they use, however, is a distinctly more yellow color (akin to the non-metallic web color version) than the traditional "old gold" used by the New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers. The color is nevertheless still referred to as "gold".
The Holy Roman Empire, which existed from 800 to 1806, had a golden flag with a black double-headed Imperial Eagle on the field, the origin of the use of the color golden in the German and Belgian flags.
The Hispanic Flag (Bandera de la Raza) is an ethnic flag that is golden and deep lilac on a white background. It is also used as the Flag of Hispanic America. (This flag is sometimes also called the Flag of the Americas when used on a non-ethnic basis to symbolically represent the combined geographical area of North America and South America together.):
References
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 195
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 195
↑ Dillard, J.M. Star Trek: The Lost Years New York:1989 Pocket Books Page 17
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200; Color Sample of Old Gold Page 51 Plate 14 Color Sample K5
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 196; Color Sample: golden poppy Page 41 Plate 9 Color Sample L12
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 195; Color sample of golden yellow: Page 43--Plate 10 Color Sample L7
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 195; Color sample of golden brown: Page 51--Plate 14 Color Sample F12
↑ Cavalli-Sforza, L. Luca; Menozzi, Paolo; and Piazza Alberto The History and Geography of Human Genes Princeton, New Jersey: 1994 Princeton University Press Page 266
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