earth color
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3.9
- noun
- US
:
color tierra
- palette of earth colors
- warm earth color
- muted earth colors
Examples
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The colors the furniture and brick want are earth colors: greens, Cherokee Red, and warm oranges and ochres, and maybe a textured grasscloth on an accent wall.
Blog text (25) -
For her painting, she chose a beautiful earth color that reminded her of autumn leaves.
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The artist often uses earth colors to create a warm and natural feeling in her landscapes.
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Mixing different earth colors can produce various shades perfect for rustic home decor.
Synonyms
52
1.0
A medium to dark color like wood or earth
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7.9
A warm orange-yellow color like autumn leaves
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6.7
A natural yellow pigment from earth used for painting
1
3.5
A natural soft color like brown or green that looks like soil
A yellow color with a little brown that looks warm and dull
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'a naturally occurring mineral pigment' is directly derivable from combining 'earth' (soil, ground) with 'color' (pigment/colour) — i.e. a colour or pigment that comes from the earth. This simple noun–noun compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Earth color comes from the simple idea of a color made from the earth, because artists used to grind red, brown and yellow minerals from the ground to make a 'pigment'. So earth color means a natural mineral 'pigment' used in art.