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OIr. gormcovers a spectrum from “deep, dark blue” to “swarthy, dark”. Together with gold, silver & the imported purple, gorm is not an ordinary colour term, but connotates status, expressed through clothing (painting Frederic William Burton) or steel weapons...
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...(plastic figures Lead Adventure?). In the meaning “shining black” it refers to hair and skin.
Gorm is not found in the Old Irish glosses, but it occurs in personal names where it functions as an adjective for “illustrious, noble”, e.g. female Gormḟlaith "noble...
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Gorm is not found in the Old Irish glosses, but it occurs in personal names where it functions as an adjective for “illustrious, noble”, e.g. female Gormḟlaith "noble...2
...sovereignty" (painting Warren Faye) or the feminine male name Gormgal "noble valour".
In the hierarchy of colour words, monolexemic, non-descriptive "blue" comes comparatively late. Unsurprisingly, therefore, special words for it are missing from many languages...
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In the hierarchy of colour words, monolexemic, non-descriptive "blue" comes comparatively late. Unsurprisingly, therefore, special words for it are missing from many languages...3
...(e.g. Ancient Greek) and it is suspect of borrowing in Irish. Welsh gwrm “brown, reddish, dark, dark-blue” seems to be the immediate source; cf. OBret. names with uurm-. The British word itself is thought to be a loan from OEngl. wurma “whelk”, a source of purple dye,...
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...cf. OHG wormo “purple”. This ultimately derives from PIE *u̯r̥mi- “worm”, also the origin of Old Prussian wormyan “red” and French vermeil “bright red”, as illustrated in @aonghusaho’s flow-chart https://twitter.com/aonghusoha/status/1213538121339588612. I am concerned about the chronology, however.
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