Misplaced Pages

Zinzolin

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Shade of red, or reddish purple

Zinzolin or gingeolin is an old or literary color name that means a reddish purple color. It is often used to describe clothing.

Origin

The word comes from the Italian zuzzulino and Arabic djoudjolân "sesame seed" as zizolin (1599, 1617), or the Spanish cinzolino and Italian giuggiolena, hence the term gingeolin, because you can get a stain from this seed. This explanation goes back to Gilles Ménage, who also mentions a Latin derivation of zinzolin from hysiginium, a plant mentioned by Pliny, and its diminutive hysiginolinum. This etymology has not always been popular, since Michel Eugène Chevreul says "Ginjolin (or gingeolin): color of dried jujube fruit (Zizyphus officinalis), formerly known as gingeole". The Italian and French Dictionary of 1663 indeed pairs the Italian giuggiolino (jujube) with Zinzolin. The Littré says "purple dye," without indicating a source.

In 1650 Paul Scarron speaks of it as a color long gone out of fashion, which probably explains the uncertainties as to its meaning.

The word, from the jargon surrounding tapestry, was used in burlesques in the seventeenth century and in the eighteenth century, with a 1769 pamphlet, still known and criticised by Diderot. Antoine de Rivarol used the word for satirical purposes. Max Jacob was able to use zinzolin many times in his novel The Bouchaballe land (1923), without giving any indication of the color or fabric in question, while providing a supremely fanciful etymology.

Color

Red-purple

Gingeolin, a reddish color, was used in 1635 Zinzolinin 1599 was unambiguously described in ’Harmonie universelle by Marin Mersenne (1636) as the final color of prismatic light on the red end of the spectrum. The Dictionnaire du tapissier (Weaver's Dictionary) defined zizzolin or zinzolin as a purple garance (rose madder), going back to the inventory of Gabrielle d'Estrées.

Sesame-based dye, used in India, gives a reddish-brown color. In 1615, the zinzolin of the livery worn by Concino Concini's men was compared to the color of blood.

Red-orange

Sixty years later however, the officials of the reign of Louis XIV wrote in a réglement (rule, regulation): "oranges, buckskin color, aurore (color) [fr] (dawn), gingeolins, golden yellow, tile and chamois color [fr] and onion peel, will be tinted according to their hue with weld (Reseda luteola) and rose madder. Same list by Antoine Furetière (1701), can only indicate a yellowish orange.

In the 19th century, Michel-Eugène Chevreul undertook a classification, both comparative and with respect to Fraunhofer lines. He categorized ginjolin (or gingeolin), a color of the Instruction générale pour la teinture of 1671 obtained with rose madder and similar to the color of tile, as in red-orange 4 tone 15.

Maybe not yellow, grey, or blue

In 1765 a new method for making a gingeolin orpiment made it yellower. But this translation from Italian mentions a clear yellow terre or earth, which in no way resembles gingeolin, and also mentions gingeolin de Naples. The work probably rendered giallorino (golden yellow or Naples yellow) with gingeolin. This may have been a translation error, since the term gingeolin was already obsolete, or a transcription of a local usage. Dauphiné and Provence were close to and had commercial ties with Italy, and in 1809, the Dictionaire des patois de l'Isère (Dictionary of the Dialects of the Isère) defined zinzolin or gingeolin as a color approaching a clear yellow. The patois of the Isère could have in this way adopted or adapted an Italian usage.

En 1911 a satirical work mentioned "the taste for pale upholstery fabrics, lemon yellows, pistachio greens, zinzolin greys, evanescent pinks", and in 2002 there is a reference to zinzolin blue (Amzallag-Augé 2002).

Purple in modern classifications

In recent color charts, the color zinzolin is a mauve or a purple. The shift in meaning, from purplish-red to reddish-purple then simply purple, took place in the second half of the 19th century, all the more easily because the word zinzolin has a pleasant sound, but remained rare, literary, pretentious and even bizarre. No doubt this should be seen in the context of the invention of artificial coloring and the fashion for purples in the 1860s.

Other modern uses

  • In embroidery thread: zinzolin 1122 or 2704 Zinzolin Purple
  • In buildings: T03 Zinzolin
  • In colored concrete: Zinzolin 271
  • In nail polish: Pale Zinzolin Purple

Bibliography

Monographs
  • Amzallag-Augé, Élizabeth (2002), Bleu zinzolin et autres bleus : un parcours en zigzag dans les collections du Centre Pompidou [Zinzolin Blue and Other Blues: A Zigzag Path through the Collections of the Centre Pompidou], Paris: Centre Pompidou, ISBN 2844261477
Chapters
Articles

See also

References

  1. Trésor de la langue française, Littré: Zinzolin – via gallica.bnf.fr.
  2. ^ Schmidt, Wilhelm Fritz (1914). Niemeyer (ed.). Die spanischen Elemente im französischen Wortschatz [Spanish Elements in French Vocabulary] (in German). Halle a. S. p. 141.
  3. Ménage, Gilles (1750), Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue françoise [Etymological Dictionary], Paris
  4. (Chevreul 1861)
  5. Anonymous (1663). Dictionnaire italien et françois. Paris: Antoine de Sommaville.
  6. Littré, Émile (1874). Dictionnaire de la langue française [Dictionary of the French Language].
  7. L'héritier ridicule (1650) [The Ridiculous Heir] – via gallica.bnf.fr..
  8. Richelet, Pierre (1706). Dictionnaire françois [French Dictionary]. Amsterdam: J. Elzevir.
  9. Bar, Francis (1973), "Les néologismes chez les Burlesques du XVIIe siècle" [Neologisms in the Burlesques of the 17th Century], Cahiers de l'Association internationale des études françaises, 25 (25): 45–58, doi:10.3406/caief.1973.1022 p.56
  10. Œuvres de Diderot [Works of Diderot]..
  11. Lescure, Adolphe de (1883), Rivarol et la société française pendant la Révolution et l'émigration [Rivarol and French Society during the Revolution and Emigration], Paris{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. (Durand Guiziou 2002).
  13. Monet, Philibert (1635). Invantaire des deus langues françoise et latine, assorti des plus utiles curiositez de l'un et de l'autre idiome [Inventory of the Two Languages, French and Latin, with the Most Useful Curiosities of One and the Other Idioms]. Lyon. p. 874.
  14. Mersenne, Marin (1636). Harmonie universelle, contenant la théorie et la pratique de la musique [Universal Harmony, Containing the Theory and Practice of Music].
  15. Deville, Jules (1880). Dictionnaire du tapissier: critique et historique de l'ameublement français, depuis les temps anciens jusqu'à nos jours [Weaver's Dictionary: Critique and History of French Furniture from Ancient Times to Our Day]. Paris: C. Claesen.; see also Savary des Bruslons, Jacques (1732). Dictionnaire universel de commerce [Universal Dictionary of Commerce]. Vol. 2. Amsterdam: Jansons.
  16. Schützenberger, Paul (1867). Masson (ed.). Traité des matières colorantes [Treatise of Coloring Materials]. Vol. 2. Paris. p. 419.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
  17. Alfred de Vigny (1883). Œuvres complètes [Complete Works]. Vol. 7. (La Maréchale d'Ancre)
  18. Louis XIV (1669). Règlemens et statuts généraux pour les longueurs, largeurs & qualitez des draps, serges & autres étoffes de laine & de fil, et pour la jurisdiction des procez et différens concernans les manufactures [Regulations and General Statutes on Lengths, Widths, and Qualities of Draperies, Serges and of Other Wool and Linen Stuffs, and for the Jurisdiction of Processes and Differences in Manufacture]. Paris.
  19. Rouge [Red]. 1701 – via gallica.bnf.fr.
  20. Chevreul, Michel-Eugène (1861). "Moyen de nommer et de définir les couleurs" [Method for Naming and Defining Colors]. Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences de l'Institut de France. p. 118.. The color described here, in a standard sRGB space, has a dominant wavelength of 606 nm (3/4 of the distance between C and D), a luminosity of 10 % (tone 15) and a color saturation of 70%.
  21. Joubert de L'Hiberderie, Antoine-Nicolas (1765). Le dessinateur, pour les fabriques d'étoffes d'or, d'argent et de soie, avec la traduction de six tables raisonnées tirées de l'"Abecedario pittorico", imprimé à Naples en 1733 [The Designer, for cloth of gold, silver and silk, with the translation of six reasoned(?) tables from the Abecedario pittorico]. Paris.
  22. Champollion-Figeac, J.-J. (1809). Goujon (ed.). Nouvelles Recherches sur les patois ou idiomes vulgaires de la France, et en particulier sur ceux du département de l'Isère, suivies d'un Essai sur la littérature dauphinoise [New Research on the Dialects or Idioms of France, and in Particular on Those of the Isère Department, Followed by an Essay on the Literature of Dauphiné]. Paris.
  23. On this subject see Charbot, Nicolas; Blanchet, Hector (1885). Dictionnaires des patois du Dauphiné [Dictionary of the Dialects of Dauphiné]. p. 290 « Jail, Jailli ». (jaune)
  24. Uzanne, Octave (1911). Sottisier des mœurs : le spectacle contemporain : quelques vanités et ridicules du jour, modes esthétiques, domestiques et sociales, façons de vivre, d'être et de paraître [Satire of Manners: The Contemporary Spectacle: Some Vanities and Ridiculousnesses of the Day, Fashions in Beauty, Domestic and Social Trends, Ways of Living, Being and Seeming]. Paris. p. 7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  25. Racinet, Albert (1888). Le costume historique. Paris: Firmin-Didot.
  26. Ball, Philip (2010). Histoire vivante des couleurs: 5000 ans de peinture racontée par les pigments [Living History of Color: 5000 Years of Painting Told By Pigments]. Paris: Hazan. pp. 285–335. (translated by Jacques Bonnet from Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour)
  27. "Nuancier colonne n°7". annika.fr. 2 November 2014.
  28. "Isacord - Violets et mauves". filoom.com. 2 November 2014.
  29. Municipality of Crozet (Ain) (2 November 2014). "Nuancier communal de Crozet" [Municipal Color Chart of Crozet]. www.crozet.fr.
  30. "Le nuancier" [Color Chart]. dlucem-matieres.com. 2 November 2014.
  31. "Violet Fine Zinzolin" [Pale Zinzolin Purple]. obsessio-nails.fr. 2 November 2014.
Categories: