Vocab: Colors in Coptic

In Coptic and older Egyptian languages, colors are either verbs or adjectives. The four basic colors in all of these are black, white, red, and green, which are have a verb form- in essence, when used, one does not say “this object is red”, but instead “this object is being red”. Other terms that are adjectives for these four are also often found, usually describing the object as being like something else; for example, “this cloak is sky-color”, to mean the cloak is blue. In some cases an object’s color can be described by its material, such as with gold. I will be focusing on words not derived from Greek.

Black: as should be unsurprising, the word for black in Coptic is kēme (ⲕⲏⲙⲉ) or kame (ⲕⲁⲙⲉ), with “to be black” being kmom (ⲕⲙⲟⲙ) or rkame (ⲣⲕⲁⲙⲉ). One can also say jōr (ϫⲱⲣ) for “to be or make black”. In Pre-Christian Egypt, black was associated with fertility, life, death, resurrection, and birth. The association with death was not a negative one, and it carries into today for Copts (such as with the clothes of monks), though it also has negative associations with evil.

White: more words for white exist in Coptic. These include alay (ⲁⲗⲁⲩ), ouōbsh (ⲟⲩⲱⲃϣ), ouobshi (ⲟⲩⲟⲃϣⲓ), and hat (ϩⲁⲧ) for white; and oubash (ⲟⲩⲃⲁϣ) and hēr (ϩⲏⲣ) for to be or become white. Hēr also refers to being luminous. In pre-Christian Egypt, white was associated with purity, sacredness, and cleanliness. These associations are much the same in Coptic art.

Red: red has two distinct sets of related words. Mērsh/mērš (ⲙⲏⲣϣ), “red, ruddy”, and mrosh/mroš (ⲙⲣⲟϣ) “to be red” are related to each other, and refer to light red, or occasionally to yellow. Tōrsh/torš (ⲧⲱⲣϣ) “red”, and trosh/troš (ⲧⲣⲟϣ), troshrsh/trošrš (ⲧⲣⲟϣⲣϣ), troshresh/trošreš (ⲧⲣⲟϣⲣⲉϣ), tōrsh/tōrš (ⲧⲱⲣϣ) all meaning “to be or become red” are likewise related, with this set being used to refer to deep red. In Pre-Christian Egypt, red was associated with danger, evil, anger, and chaos, but also with vitality. Red-brown was often used to color men’s skin. “To do red things” was an idiom meaning someone had done evil. Today, many Copts primarily associate red with blood, especially the blood of martyrdom. It is also associated with life and resurrection and can symbolize regality, glory, and humanity (based on forum discussion). In Pre-Islamic Coptic Egypt, leather slippers were often dyed red.

Green: Ouotouet (ⲟⲩⲟⲧⲟⲩⲉⲧ) and ouōt (ⲟⲩⲱⲧ) mean “to be green”, with the former also referring to a sickly appearance, and the latter also referring to freshness or rawness. Green in Pre-Christian Egypt was associated with fertility and life for obvious reasons, and was also associated with resurrection and the afterlife. “To do green things” was an idiom meaning “to do good deeds”. In Coptic art, green still symbolizes life, and a light green may be used in depicting halos, but it is also sometimes associated with Satan and sin.

Blue: in the older Egyptian languages, one may say something is the color of lapis, faience, or turquoise to say that it is blue. This did not carry over into Coptic. One does find ayanmpe (ⲁⲩⲁⲛⲙⲡⲉ), literally meaning “sky colored”, which also refers to linen. In Pre-Christian Egypt, blue was associated with the sky, water, wisdom, and protection. In Coptic art, it is still related to the sky and water, and it is also connected to Heaven and the Virgin Mary.

Purple: the word for purple, Jēkye/čēkye/čēce (ϫⲏϭⲉ) in Coptic is directly related to words for dyeing and fabric, and many extant pre-Islamic Coptic tunics have their designs woven in purple thread.

Gold: the word for gold, noub (ⲛⲟⲩⲃ), is relatively unchanged in Coptic from older versions of the word, and is well known to likely be the derivation for the words Nubia and Nubian. Gold and yellow were associated with the sun and eternity in Pre-Christian Egypt, and yellow was often used to color women’s skin. Gold in Coptic art is connected to God, divinity, divine presence, and heaven. Halos are often yellow or gold in color.

Silver: hat (ϩⲁⲧ) refers to silver and silver coins, and shōp/šōp (ϣⲱⲡ) refers to silver jewelry (particularly necklaces and bracelets). The similarity of the former to the word for white may come down to the fact that the color white in Egyptian languages is often connected to brightness and shining.

Additionally, in 1643, Athanasius Kircher published the Lingua Aegyptiaca Restituta, which proports to translate Coptic words from the Bohairic dialect. Among these are reportedly some color words; manmon (ⲙⲁⲛⲙⲟⲛ) for orange, kortimos (ⲕⲟⲣⲧⲓⲙⲟⲥ) for lime, asilōn (ⲁⲥⲓⲗⲱⲛ) for blue which is ultimately from Persian, and aouin (ⲁⲟⲩⲓⲛ) for yellow- which is indeed extant in more recent Coptic dictionaries to refer to jaundice. Most of these words, however, do not appear in other Coptic dictionaries. Given this and other Coptic dictionaries are seperated by 200-300 years, it is possible the words Kircher recorded were contemporary to him in some way- I am unfamiliar of any analysis discussing this discrepancy. It is also possible that he inaccurately recorded these.

The rightmost roundel on this Coptic textile depicts what I believe to be a lotus bouquet.

There are also colors that don’t have any distinct terms in Coptic that I know of, but are symbolically or visually significant. For example, in Pre-Christian Egyptian art, lotuses are most commonly blue. In pre-Islamic Coptic textiles however, lotuses are typically pink. The pink lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) was likely introduced to Egypt by the Achemenaids, and unlike the native lotuses, has seed pods. The color stymies the identification of lotuses, which in previous eras of Egyptian art, were blue or occasionally white- however, if you see seed pods amongst a bunch of tear drop shaped pink buds, or a central flower or bud with two smaller buds of flowers, especially if the latter are perpendicular, it is likely you are looking at lotuses. I think the pink perhaps gained visual popularity because pink and red are similar colors, and the edges of these lotuses are often a deep reddish pink. I base this on the fact that Pre-Christian lotuses are depicted in the same way, enough so that some think the ankh may be a stylized lotus bouquet. Brown is associated with dirt/dust and humility, and is sometimes used in icons for the Virgin Mary and Saint Mary of Egypt.

Sources and further reading on Egyptian color symbolism:

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/999/color-in-ancient-egypt/