this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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Too true and makes sense, but what confuses and vexes me is the idea that "yellow" would predate "blue": Blue things include bodies of water and the sky (assuming the azure/cyan and royal blue/standard blue are the same color), but what important thing is there that is yellow that we need to talk about so urgently? Blue comes up with some foods, but it is rare and other natural phenomena like colors of a night sky, but I'm struggling to think of the reason why we needed "yellow" prior to that. Any conjecture?
Twisting a bit the reasoning of the text: perhaps the contrast between yellow vs. others is more meaningful than the contrast between blue vs. others. For a lot of things it's a big deal if it's yellow or not: unripe vs. ripe fruit, egg white vs. yolk, gold vs. other metals. Cheese also comes to my mind; we humans have been doing cheese since forever, and aged cheeses are typically yellower (and less likely to spoil).
In the meantime, the distinction between blue and green isn't too useful in pre-industrial societies - sure, you want to know if the sky is light or dark, but that's easier to cover by calling it either "white" or "grue".