Strange Colors, With Hints! Trivia Quiz

Answer: magenta

The battle of Magenta on June 4, 1859, was a solid victory for the French and Sardinian armies over the Austrian Empire soldiers. Though it was a rather insignificant battle, the name was used several ways. The commander of the Army of Italy was named Duke of Magenta for his part in it, and the Boulevard de Magenta in Paris was renamed also. François-Emmanuel Verguin, a French chemist, invented a new aniline dye that same year, unique because it came from coal tar rather than plants or animals like the natural dyes before then.

He first called it fuchsine, but soon renamed it magenta after the battle, and that name stuck, to describe a bright pink. Verguin was in competition with George Perkin of England, who had invented a purple aniline dye in 1856, and others who were investigating new dyes that didn't come from nature. Looking for hints? Note MAGnificent, GENT, and MAGnify to point you in the right direction.

Answer: yellow

The mineral cadmium was discovered circa 1817 by Friedrich Stromeyer, and within a few decades, it was cheap enough for artists to use as a pigment that produced a vibrant, long-lasting shade of yellow. Mixing it with selenium or other minerals changed it to orange or red.

The New York Times reported in a 2014 article about a potential health ban of it by the European Union, but artists were relieved when the ban was voted down, as they are the main users now, and know to protect themselves from the health risks of inhaling it. Hint: sunny.

Answer: blue or blue-green

Discovered by accident in the early 20th century, phthalocyanine was shortened to the name phthalo and is now used to dye cloth, tint ink and paper, and produce paint. It creates an intense blue or blue-green in its most natural form, but other compounds produce other colors. Apparently you can say either "thay-low" or "thall-low." Hint: "don't be SAD" for blue.

Answer: crushed insects

Cochineal bugs live on cactus of the genus Opuntia in Mexico and similar climates, and when dried and crushed or ground, they produce a food-safe dye. It's coming back in favor, after other red food dyes have been shown to cause health problems if consumed in large quantities. If you're looking for what food or cosmetic has bugs, "carmine" is another common name used in lists of ingredients.

Historians are more apt to talk about a "cochineal-dyed" fabric. The bugs' economic importance is as old as the 16th century, when they became an export product from Central America.

Their use faded with the invention of synthetic dyes in the late 1860s, but interest has picked up again for safe food use. Hint: Don't let it BUG you.

Answer: leaves

Natural indigo comes from several plants which perform similarly. There's true indigo, Indigofera tinctoria from Asia, and another indigo species, I. suffruticosa from Central and South America. Colder subtropical locations in some parts of Japan and Taiwan grew Strobilanthes cusia.

In Europe, woad or Isatis tinctoria produced a similar dye. A native species, I. caroliniana, was found in the North America Carolina colonies and along with I. tinctoria became the colony's second most profitable export after rice.

As regions communicated and traded, each gravitated toward using the best dye-producing plant that would grow in its climate. Amazingly, all the diverse indigo sources were similar enough that all used the leaves, usually dried and compressed into a bright blue cake for easy transportation and trading. Hint: let me LEAVE you...

Answer: black

To produce bone black paint, bones were first cleaned, then reduced to charcoal by slow burning. The resulting black powder was mixed with whatever base was being used for the paint, producing a pure black paint, unless it was deliberately diluted. Ivory black, another oxymoronic name, was produced similarly.

The procedure goes back to pre-history, when leftover bones could be naturally burned and mixed as a slurry with water for fingerpainting. The Old Masters used a pigment burned in a more controlled way to make a consistent charcoal. Neutron activation autoradiography of Rembrandt's paintings shows he used bone black as a wash to outline the main painting and sometimes more rarely as an upper layer to show shadows of dark clothing. Hints: "Don't overthink" and "short" implied to choose the simplest, shortest answer, black.

Answer: greenish-blue

Viridian is chromium oxide dihydrate, a chemical which Guignet of Paris discovered how to manufacture efficiently and patented the process in 1859. Because the green was nontoxic, unlike arsenic-based greens, it had a natural advantage. A 2010 article in "The Economist" showed how experts at the National Gallery of Art got too wrapped up in their expertise.

They analyzed an 1826 painting and found it to contain viridian, and feared a fake because that was before chromium oxide dihydrate had been available.

But then they realized it had been around before, just not so efficiently produced, and could have existed. Hint: GREENhorns, for a greenish-blue pigment.

Answer: cuttlefish ink, squirted when frightened

Cuttlefish ink is generally collected from the sac of the dead cuttlefish, and was once used as a brown writing ink. The cuttlefish's genus is Sepia, and the word's meaning has become intermixed with the color, even when no cuttlefish are used. Photographic prints are treated to a bleaching bath followed by a bath with sulphur that darkens the print again--and there are many variations to the process, but none require dead or frightened cuttlefish, yet they are all called sepia. Various ink formulations have replaced the need for real cuttlefish too. Hint: may sound FISHY.

Answer: yellow

The name comes from the Latin auripigmentum, badly mispronounced. The Latin means auri (gold) and pigmentum (pigment). It's actually arsenic sulfide, which may have discouraged widespread use. The Greeks, Persians and Egyptians weren't scared away, but northern Europeans preferred yellow of lead tin, perhaps marginally more healthful. King's yellow or jaune royal are other names for orpiment. Hint: "wins the GOLD prize"

Answer: green

Verdigris is the natural color that copper, brass or bronze becomes as it weathers, which explains why the Statue of Liberty is no longer coppery bronze colored. It's a carbonate of copper, and for a while was manufactured by aging copper with acetic acid to make copper acetate. Under some circumstances it was lightfast and aged well, but under others it became a dark brown, so painters eventually chose more easily predictable greens.

The name comes from old French, vert-de-Grèce, green from Greece. Hint: the Statue of Liberty's color.