From PIE *ghelh₃- (to shine) — same root as 'gold,' 'glow,' 'gleam,' and Greek 'chloros,' all meaningbrightness.
Definition
Of the colour between green and orange in the spectrum, resembling ripe lemons, egg yolks, or gold.
The Full Story
Proto-Indo-Europeanbefore 900 CEwell-attested
From OldEnglish 'geolu,' from Proto-Germanic *gelwaz, from PIE *gʰelh₃- (to shine, to gleam, with secondary senses of yellow, green, and bright). This remarkably productive root generated a cluster of light and colour words in English: 'gold' (the shining yellow metal), 'glow' (to emit warm light), 'glass' (the gleaming material), 'gleam,' 'glitter,' 'glint,' and 'glad' (originally bright-faced). ThePIE root also produced
Did you know?
Yellow, gold, glow, gleam, glitter, glass, and glad all descend from the same PIE root *gʰelh₃- (to shine) — the largest colour-related word family in English, all united by the ancient concept of shiningbrightness.
on luminous, living, growing colour rather than our modern red-yellow-green spectrum. The English colour term stabilised as distinctly yellow by the Old English