Flag Day (June 14) Puzzle

Prof. Walter Effross points out that there's an English adjective (still in use today) that has been variously used to indicate that something is reddish, or whitish, or bluish. What is that?

Comments

[Abdul Abulbul Amir]

Pastel?

[Gazeboist]

Flagged this comment by accident; there's clearly no need for moderation here. My bad.

[Andrew Dhuey]

Sky-colored.

[DjDiverDan]

Opalescent.

[Pettifogger]

I tried to cheat by using a thesaurus. I found no overlap.

[Eugene Volokh]

Hint: 51 6 500.

[Josh R]

Livid.

[Krayt]

Nice

[ThePublius]

I'm familiar with the bluish meaning, never heard the reddish or whitish.

It reminds me, in a childish kind of way, of this little ditty:

Roses are reddish,
Violets are bluish;
If it weren't for Jesus
We'd all be Jewish.

Mazel tov.

[Gazeboist]

Reddish would be the anger meaning. Possibly whitish too, but that might refer to a sickly or deathly palor. I'm actually more surprised by the bluish meaning.

[ButWhatDoIKnow]

Maybe think of it in the sense of bruising in the living, or post-mortem lividity. Various shades of crimson and purple-ish blues.

[MuYixiao]

Oxidized
Iron = redish
Titanium and aluminum = whitish
Copper = bluish

[[Eugene Volokh] Flag Day (June 14) Puzzle – Jehtro Lewis – Blog]

[…] from Law https://reason.com/2019/06/13/flag-day-june-14-puzzle/ […]

[mydisplayname]

This is certainly not an answer to the question, but I find some color nouns and adjectives more interesting than others.

For example, in Song of Solomon 5:10, there's a word that can be taken to mean "Adam-redness" and is translated in the Vulgate as "rubicundus," one Latin word for redness. Taking a look at the image Google displays for rubicundus -- an image of the particular stinkhorn fungus which grows as a spongy stalk up to 15 cm tall arising from a gelatinous "egg" up to 3 cm in diameter -- makes the nuance of the word clearer: if one changes a letter or two in the Hebrew, "redness" becomes the aspect of Adam that repeatedly "knew" Eve (see Genesis 4:1, 4:25, 5:1, etc).

If one says "My beloved is dazzling and his Adam-redness is conspicuous [stands out] among ten thousand soldiers," it is certainly different from the mild and nonsensical KJV translation "My beloved is white and red; chosen from thousands" and from modern translation attempts such as "My beloved is dazzling, with a dark and healthy complexion, outstanding among ten thousand."

[Deacon John-Saturus]

A slight correction. The King James says "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand."

[Kai-HK]

Magenta

[Kai-HK]

Actually I think fushsia is the better term.

[Kai-HK]

Fuchsia

[MatthewSlyfield]

Manyhsia 🙂

[NolanLibertarian]

Simple!
Flagish

[Roman Moroni]

Light purple

[Mike45]

Pale red
Pale blue
pale