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Claim offerInspiration in the color green.
Learn the history and meaning of the color green: from nature to envy and back again.
Get inspired with green design templates.
Green is tied to nature. Its meanings sprouted from millennia of metaphors, from growth to abundance to wealth.
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How to use the color green.
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Green gives you permission.
Consider another value of green: safety or permission. The green light tells you to “go.” Green was chosen by the international railroad because of its high visibility. Green screens are also a part of movie productions today, giving creators the “go” to create whatever CGI they can imagine. Though, the green screen could have been any color. The film industry chose green because it’s the color furthest from all skin tones.
Health and wealth.
The color green has also come to mean wealth and health. The American green dollar bill is so well-known that a popular emoji has a green tongue and green dollar signs for eyes. The green Emerald City is another classic reference of our vision of green prosperity. Green color is also connected to health because it represents renewal and life.
Green equals growth, and it also equals youth.
Green has forever been associated with regeneration and rebirth. With this, the term “green” can also refer to someone or something underdeveloped or immature. Green color can be used to represent naivete or inexperience.
Green foliage and many, many green animals.
In nature, green represents more than plants. Many animals adapted to fauna by evolving to be green themselves. Look to nature for green color inspiration, including the huntsman spider, the green mamba, parrots of the Amazon, and a long list of frogs.
Information about green color.
The green HEX code picker is #00FF00. This green is the perfect balance between blue and yellow. It’s considered fresh and pure.
Green color can be achieved in a RGB space with 0 red, 255 green, and 0 blue. Green can be achieved in a CMYK color space with 100% cyan, 0% magenta, 100% yellow, and 0% black.
What is the meaning of the color green?
Green’s oldest meaning comes down to science. Chlorophyll is the green pigment found in plants. It is chlorophyll that makes all plant life absorb energy from light. Because plants are green, countless animal species now come in shades of green as camouflage. This is why green color is abundant in nature.
Green took new meanings beyond nature as civilization grew. Now, green can also mean envy, inexperience, wealth, and even an emoji that’s sick to its stomach.
The history of green color.
Green comes from the same root word that led to “grass” and “grow.”
The word green comes from the Middle English “grene” that shares its origin with “grass” and “grow.” Looking at the metaphorical meaning of green, you can see more connections to this earthy origin. Green is the symbol of something down-to-earth. Green also represents new beginnings. Green equals wealth and generosity. Green, in almost every sense, expresses abundance.
Green in ancient civilizations celebrated growth and rebirth.
In Ancient Egypt, green meant regeneration. Crops were drawn with green hieroglyphs. The ruler of the underworld, Osiris, was represented with green because the Egyptians believed in rebirth after death. In Ancient Rome, green was the color of Venus. This represented her fertility and also her domain of gardens and vineyards.
Green took on many new meanings in the last 200 years.
By the late 18th century, green color became linked to the romantic movement in literature and art. Goethe believed that green was a restful color and even recommended painting bedrooms green. Green was linked to emotions like calmness and thoughtfulness after that. In the 1980s, green became a symbol of environmentally-focused green political parties around the world.
The color green across different cultures.
Green is mostly nature…with envy and illness thrown in.
Green is universally tied to nature. Green color has symbolized everything from crop harvests to the legalization of marijuana. If it grows, it’s green. Two exceptions are green meaning jealousy and illness. Thanks to lines in Shakespeare’s plays Othello and The Merchant of Venice, someone’s eyes can “glow green with envy.” Green can also depict the feeling of being sick to one’s stomach.
Different languages — and cultures — treat green differently.
Many languages have one word that covers blue and green. Japanese, Vietnamese, Lakota Sioux, and traditional Mandarin Chinese consider green a hue of blue. That means what some call a “green apple” in English would be a “blue apple” in Japanese.
Green eyes aren’t green, not even if you’re extremely jealous.
Outside of famous Shakespearisms describing green-eyed jealousy, science tells us that green eyes are actually an optical illusion. The combination of amber (light brown) coloring in the stroma of an eye with a low level of melanin mixes with the blue tone from light that scatters through the stroma. That yellowish amber mixed with blue light makes eyes look green.