History of Ancient Thai Color Terms: A Case Study of Red Tone

Abstract

“Color terms” are language culture that reflects the society, history, economy, belief, environment and ways of life of those native speakers. These terms were coined by ways of close observation of the environment and classification by the speakers. As far as Thai color terms are concerned, red is one of special important and interesting colors since this color has a variety of tones and it has been used as a primary color especially in Thai traditional fine arts. Red consists of more than fifty different terms, such as Mor Mai (new pot in transliteration or light red derived from pottery in meaning), Kamayi (velvet from textile in transliteration and in meaning), and Loednok (bird’s blood in transliteration or carmine from an animal in meaning). Some of the red color terms are still in use today while the others already vanished, or can be found only in documentary, textbooks, oral narratives from artisans, for example, dramatic mask makers, mural painters, and dyers. In order to preserve Thai wisdom concerning its colors, this article then aims to collect Thai red color terms through historical investigation and disseminate to the public.