red
The colour of blood and fire; the first colour on the visible spectrum.
Etymology
From Old English rēad, from Proto-Germanic *raudaz, from PIE *h₁rewdʰ- "red." Red was the first colour (after black and white) to receive a dedicated name in most languages — it is the colour of blood, fire, and danger. The PIE root gives Latin ruber, which spawned "ruby," "rubric," and "rouge."
The Journey: *h₁rewdʰ- → red
*h₁rewdʰ-
*raudaz
rēad
red
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *h₁rewdʰ-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Greek | eruthrós |
| Latin | ruber |
| Welsh | rhudd |
| Russian | rudoj (reddish) |
| Sanskrit | rudhirá |
| Old Irish | rúad |
| Lithuanian | raũdas |
Did You Know?
PIE *h₁rewdʰ- gives English "red" (Germanic), "ruby" and "rouge" (via Latin ruber), and "erythrocyte" (via Greek eruthrós). Red was likely the first colour (after black and white) to receive a dedicated name in most languages — the colour of blood and fire.
This word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₁rewdʰ-. See the full root page for descendant trees, sound law references, and scholarly discussion.