10 Shades of Colors That You Didn’t Know Had Actual Names

Quick. What’s your favorite color? If you said purple, you’re super boring, so try again. Malachite? Well la-dee-da! Aren’t you a pretentious fellow! You can’t win is what we’re saying. Anyway, in a world full of colors, some of the shades sort of get lost in the shuffle. But obscure colors deserve some love, right? Except for periwinkle and fuchsia. We shall never speak of those colors again. Here is a list of 10 colors that you may not know, but have definitely seen.

1. Caput Mortuum
Most of our readers are completely fluent in Latin (among other languages), so if you knew that Caput Mortuum translates into “worthless remains” we are not surprised. This oxidized rust color was especially popular in Medieval times when painting portraits of important figures and saints.

2. Xanadu
This green-gray color comes from a plant called Philodendron, which would also make a cool name for a sea monster in our humble opinion. It turns out that in spite of the fact that Xanadu is named of an ancient city in Inner Mongolia, the plant doesn’t grow there! It’s actually native to Australia. Craziness, no?

3. United Nations Blue
The United Nations gets its own color because the United Nations can get to do whatever it wants. We bow to our United Nations overlords and all of their non-binding resolutions. Anyway, this is the color that they use on their flags and even on UN Peacekeeper uniforms.

4. Feldgrau
Feldgrau sounds like it should be the name of a James Bond villain. In reality, it’s German for “Field gray.” It’s the gray-green color that was worn by the German army from 1907 until the end of WWII. The US Army uses a similar shade for its uniforms.