[Tig] gray/grey

[Rob Lingelbach]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 17:36:26 +1000, Dominic Case wrote
> Thanks to Sean Mckee for supporting the TIG.
> --
> Here's a thought for an idle moment . . . similar to Rob's 
> legendary interest in the colour of the middle traffic 
> light (yellow? orange? amber?).

ah, you've provoked me again.  Here are the original propositions:
1) amber is not the same color as yellow, at least as I was taught 
in art class.  it has more red in it.  2) given this fact, are 
traffic lights in the UK, the warning ones called "amber", actually 
a different color than the ones we call "yellow" (never "amber") in 
the US?   I do solemnly assert I never got a straight answer on 
this.

what you quote in the following is fascinating, and calls for a 
research paper underwritten by Peter Swinson.  Amber Lager, being a 
nice german girl I know, thinks you're on the right track.

Seriously, some of us also take offense 
at "whilst" "colourist" "flash" and some UKisms but your research 
into gray/grey deserves more fleshing out.


(continued below)


> >>Many correspondents said that they used the two forms with a 
difference of
> meaning or application: the distinction most generally 
> recognized being that grey denotes a more delicate or a 
> lighter tint than gray. Others considered the difference 
> to be that gray is a _warmer_ colour, or that it has a 
> mixture of red or brown (cf. also the quot. under 1 c 
> below). In the twentieth century, grey has become the 
> established spelling in the U.K., whilst gray is standard 
> in the United States. <<
> 
> Then I found this . . .
> 
> > "Grey is composed only of black and white; the term gray is 
applied to
> > any broken colour of cool hue and therefore belongs to the 
class of
> > chromatic colours" 1885
> 
> Those on this list who use greyscales, or believe that an 
> 18% grey (is that lighter than 18% gray) has some 
> significance, must surely be the authorities on this. What 
> do you think?

anything having a semantic relevance to our craft excites me no end 
Dominic.  Outstanding research, worthy of a thesis subject.

--Rob
--
Rob Lingelbach   http://www.colorist.org   rob at calarts.edu
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