Hooker’s Green
noun

- a nonpermanent pigment consisting of Prussian blue mixed with gamboge, characterized chiefly by its green color

Collins Dictionary

—

WORD ORIGIN

The term "Hooker's Green" comes from the English botanical artist and art teacher William Hooker (1779-1832), who created this pigment in the early 19th century.

Hooker developed this green hue specifically for painting foliage. As a botanical illustrator, he needed accurate colours to depict plants, and the existing green pigments of his time weren't satisfactory for this purpose. His green was originally a mixture of Prussian blue (ferric ferrocyanide) and gamboge (a yellow gum resin from various Southeast Asian trees).

The pigment became popular among watercolour artists and has remained in use to this day, though modern formulations typically use different ingredients than the original mixture.

The colour is prized for its natural, subdued quality that accurately represents the varied greens found in nature, making it particularly useful for landscape painting and botanical illustration.

—
WHY OUR EYES LOVE GREEN
Human Eyes Are Most Sensitive to the Green Wavelength of Light

Electromagnetic radiation comes in a variety of types, including radio waves, gamma rays, and visible light. The human eye can perceive wavelengths around 380 to 740 nanometers (nm), also known as the visual light range.

The size of the wavelength determines the colour we see: For example, at 400 nm our eyes perceive the color violet (hence the name “ultraviolet” for wavelengths directly under 400 nm), whereas at 700 nm our eyes glimpse red (but can’t see the “infrared” wavelengths just beyond it).

In the middle of this spectrum of visible light is the colour green, which occupies the range between 520 to 565 nm and peaks at 555 nm. Because this is right in the middle of our visual range, our eyes are particularly sensitive to green. Studies suggest that humans can distinguish approximately 1 million to 10 million colors overall. Within this range, our ability to discern green variations is particularly refined, likely due to evolutionary factors such as the need to identify foliage and ripe fruits in natural environments. ​

This exceptional sensitivity to green not only enhances our visual experience but also contributes to the calming effect associated with green environments, as our visual system processes these hues with ease.

Helga & Paul Smith

—
SYNONYMS

algae-coloured, apple green, aquamarine, army green, asparagus, avocado, beryl, blue-green, bottle green, British racing green, broccoli, Brunswick green, bud green, cadmium green, camouflage, caterpillar green, celadon, chartreuse, chlorophyl, clover, emerald green, fern green, forest green, grass-green, gooseberry, greenish, greenish-yellow, holly, HOOKER’S GREEN, hunter green, ivy, jade, jungle green, kiwi, laurel green, leaf green, traffic light green, lime, malachite, meadow green, mint, moss, moss green, olive, pea green, sage green, sea green, smaragdine, snooker table green, spinach, spring green, spring-coloured, teal, verdant, verdure, verdigris, viridescent, viridian

—
SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation today, say something like:

“I didn't know that HOOKER’S GREEN is a classic pigment originally mixed from Prussian blue and gamboge, prized for its natural foliage tones.”

—
P L E A S E   S U P P O R T   O W A D

On evenings and weekends, I research and write your daily OWAD newsletter together with Helga—my lovely wife and coaching partner, and our eagle-eyed daughter, Jennifer.

It remains FREE, AD-FREE, and ALIVE thanks to voluntary donations from appreciative readers.

If you aren’t already, please consider supporting us — even a small donation, equivalent to just 1-cup-of-coffee a month, would help us in covering expenses for mailing, site-hosting, maintenance, and service.

Just head over to DonorBox:
Please help keep OWAD alive

or

Bank transfer:
Paul Smith
IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40

Important: please state as ’Verwendungszweck’: “OWAD donation” and the email address used to subscribe to OWAD.

Thanks so much,

Paul, Helga, & Jenny Smith

- Feedback, questions, new word suggestions to: paul@smith.de

- OWAD homepage, word archive, FAQs, publications, events, and more: www.owad.de

---

- to unsubscribe from OWAD, CLICK HERE