How red came to be

Red was the first basic colour term added to languages after black and white. The word red
derives from Sanskrit rudhira and Proto-Germanic rauthaz. One of the first written records
of the term is from an Old English translation (897 ce) of Pope St.

Roses are red, violets are blue, and in between are a

million other hues. But which one of these colors is, statistically speaking, the most
popular around the world?

It turns out that humanity's favorite hue isn't constant. A 2015 survey
by YouGov(opens in new tab) found that blue was the most popular color worldwide.
Meanwhile, in 2017, a survey of 30,000 people across 100 countries found deep teal
to be the most popular color, The Independent reported(opens in new tab). The
answer seems to vary with the year, survey method and population sampled.
And color preferences are highly influenced by culture. For instance, a 2019 study in
the journal Perception(opens in new tab) compared the favorite hues of people in
Polish, Papuan and Hadza cultures. (The Hadza are a hunter-gatherer group that
lives in Tanzania.) Preferred colors diverged widely among these cultures.

12,000% love red