"colour" in seven languages
Meaningcolour
Spanish
/koˈloɾ/
masc.inherited
Old Spanish (and some rural speech) said la color.
French
/kulœʁ/
fem.inherited
Italian
/koˈlore/
masc.inherited
Portuguese
/koh/
fem.inherited
Portuguese lost the intervocalic -l- (COLŌREM → coor → cor) and, like French, made the word feminine.
Romanian
/kuˈlo̯are/
fem.inherited
Feminine, like French couleur.
Catalan
/kuˈlo/
masc.inherited
Also feminine (la color) in traditional and literary usage.
English
/ˈkʌlɚ/
from Latin/French · Old French colour
The Latin ancestor
COLŌREM (nom. COLOR)‘colour’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Latin -OR nouns were masculine; French made nearly all of them feminine (la couleur, la chaleur, la douleur), while Spanish and Italian kept them masculine.
English relatives: colour, coloration, Colorado (Spanish 'reddish')
Learn it
In a sentence
- es¿Cuál es tu color favorito?
- frQuelle est ta couleur préférée ?
- itQual è il tuo colore preferito?
- ptQual é a sua cor preferida?
- roCare e culoarea ta preferată?
- caQuin és el teu color preferit?
- enWhat's your favourite colour?