It was commonly thought that all colors came from various mixtures of black and white, based on findings from Aristotle. We now know that this is far from the truth.
Isaac Newton conducted experiments with a prism to prove that color comes from white light, after 1666. Below are just a handful of colors that can be seen in nature and all around us.
Earth Yellow
Earth yellow is a medium orange-yellow. It is an official camouflage color for the United States Army. It is also a darker shade of desert sand.
Ebony
Ebony is a gray olive green. It symbolizes the hue of the wood ebony. This is a tropical hardwood that was made into fine furniture for French kings.
It is a light shade of black and was first used as a color name in English in 1590.
Ecru
Ecru describes the color of linen when it is unbleached. It is a gray-yellow, and regarded as a shade of beige.
The term comes from the French word écru, which translates to “unbleached” in English.
Eerie Black
Eerie black is a name to describe a deep shade of black. The name comes from a box of Crayola crayons made in the early 2000s. The set was called Heads ‘n Tails.
Eggplant
Eggplant is a dark purple-red. It is close to the shade of the outer skin on European eggplants. The name was first used as a color term in English in 1915.
Crayola named a crayon in 1998 eggplant that was a pink-purple-gray hue.
Eggshell
Eggshell is a light shade of yellow and green combined. It symbolizes the color of a chicken egg. Interior designers consider this hue a shade of off-white.
Egyptian Blue
Egyptian blue was a shade of bright blue. It was a pigment that was used for thousands of years in ancient Egypt. It is known as the first fabricated pigment.
Egyptian blue was made up of copper, lime, alkali, and silica. Blue was a significant color in ancient Egypt and used to make decorative items.
Electric Blue
Electric blue is a bright blue-green. It symbolizes the color of an electric spark, ionized argon gas, and lightning. It was first used as a color term in English in 1845.
Electric Crimson
Electric crimson is a very bright red. Crimson is a substance that was made from dried bodies of the Kermes, an insect with scales. The word has been used in English since 1400.
Electric Indigo
Electric indigo is a bright purple-blue. It is very close to the blue on the color wheel. The term “indigo” is based on a Latin word for Indian, since the indigo dye that was exported to Europe came from India.
Electric Lime
Electric lime is a bright yellow-green. Crayola made a color with the same name in 1990. This shade of lime is a popular color in psychedelic art.
Electric Purple
Electric purple is a bright shade of purple. It is between violet and magenta.
True purple is an older name for this color, which comes from Color Standards and Color Nomenclature by Robert Ridgeway in 1912.
Electric Violet
Electric violet is a bright version of violet. It is also called middle violet or violet. The hue is close to the middle spectrum violet that is made on a computer screen.
Emerald
Emerald is a vivid shade of green. Its name comes from the gem emerald that is in a bright shade of green. It was first used in English as a color word in 1598.
Eminence
Eminence is a deep purple hue. It has been used as a color term since the 1800s. Eminance once again became popular starting in 2001 when it was included in the Xona.com Color list.
English Lavender
English lavender is a gray purple-red. It represents the shade of purple on the English lavender herb. The hue is included in the “Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)” color list.
English Red
English red is a medium shade of the color red. It is a tone of Indian red, which is a pigment made from iron oxide. It was first used as a color name in English in the 1700s.
English Vermillion
English vermillion is a shade of pink and red. It is based on vermillion, a pigment made from the powdered mineral cinnabar. It was used in art pieces, writings, and cosmetics in ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, India, and China.
English Violet
English violet is a dark version of magenta. Violet describes a color based on a plant that produces purple flowers.
Eton Blue
Eton blue is a light yellow-green. It is also called Shelduck Blue and has been used by sportsmen from Eton College since the early 19th century. Geelong Grammar School also uses this light shade of green.
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a hue of green and cyan. The name comes from a plant that grows in various shades of green, based on what type it is.
Source: colors on Wikipedia.