Citrine (colour)

The colour displayed in the colour box above matches the colour called citrine in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the colour citrine is displayed on page 51, Plate 14, Color Sample L6.

Citrine is a colour, the most common reference for which is certain coloured varieties of quartz which are a medium deep shade of golden yellow. Citrine has been summarized at various times as yellow, greenish-yellow, brownish yellow or orange.

The original reference point for the citrine colour was the citron fruit. The first recorded use of citrine as a colour in English was in 1386. It was borrowed from a medieval Latin and classical Latin word with the same meaning. In late medieval and early modern English the citrine colour-name was applied in a wider variety of contexts than it is today and could be "reddish or brownish yellow; or orange; or amber (distinguished from yellow)".

In today's English citrine as a colour is mostly confined to the contexts of (1) gemstones, including quartz, and (2) some animal and plant names. E.g., the citrine wagtail (Motacilla citreola), an Asian bird species with golden-yellow plumage, or the citrine warbler, citrine canary-flycatcher, citrine forktail, etc.

File:Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla citreola)- Breeding Male of calcarata race at Bharatpur I IMG 5752.jpg|Citrine wagtail File:3 etrog.JPG|The citron fruit is historically the source-word for the citrine colour name, beginning in Latin File:Basileuterus luteoviridis.jpg|Citrine warbler File:Citrineforktail.JPG|Citrine forktail