In French, the term literally means "dead leaf." In English, feuille morte refers specifically to a brownish-orange or yellowish-brown color. The synonymous derivative, philamot, can also be used to describe the brownish, yellowish colors in autumn foliage.
In modern English, sepia is best known as the name for the brownish tone that makes photographs look vintage. Sepia hues can be found in an autumn leaf—and in the ocean.
在现代英语中，sepia为人熟知的意思是指复古照片的棕色调。秋叶和海洋中就有这种颜色。
Originally, the word was applied to the cuttlefish, a creature related to the squid and octopus that, when alarmed, releases an inky secretion. In the 19th century, watercolor painters began using sepia secretion to create a rich, brown pigment, which became known as sepia. A common description of the color is brownish gray to dark olive brown.
Being a reddish brown, russet is a popular fall color. Its name is a borrowing of an Anglo-French adjective, meaning "reddish" or "reddish-brown," that came to designate a coarse, homespun cloth used to make garments. English borrowed the French term for the cloth in the 13th century before using it in its color sense.
Association of the word with rural living led to its use as an adjective meaning "rustic," "homely," and "simple."
因为russet和乡村生活有关，因此也可以做形容词表示“朴素的”、“家常的”、“简单的”意思。
amber ['æmbəʳ]
琥珀色
Amber can describe the dark orange-yellow color of a floating leaf or a substance found floating in the sea. It is derived from Arabic, anbar, which refers to ambergris, a waxy secretion of the sperm whale that is used as a spice and in perfumery. In English, amber was originally used as the name for this substance, with the name ambergris developing later in French from ambre and gris ("gray") to differentiate it from the fossilized tree resin type of amber, which is also found around the shore (of the Baltic Sea, largely).
Species of insects and plants have been found as fossils in this yellowish to brownish amber, and deeply colored, translucent pieces are used in making jewelry and ornamental objects. It is from the color of this resin that amber has come to refer to a dark orange yellow.
Gamboge, also spelled camboge, can be used to describe the vivid yellows of autumn. The name of the color refers to a gum resin from Southeast Asian trees that is used as a yellow pigment and as a purgative. The resin is orange to brown in color but when pulverized turns bright yellow.
Gamboge is based on New Latin gambogium, an alteration of cambugium, which is either from or akin to the Portuguese name for the country of Cambodia, Camboja. Cambodia also happens to be one of the countries in which the trees producing gamboge are indigenous.
Scarlet was not originally a word for a color but a name for a high-quality cloth, which is believed to have originated in Persia where it was called saqalāt. The word entered English via Anglo-French escarlet—a derivative of the Latin word for the cloth, scarlata—and became associated with bright red colors because the cloth was commonly dyed red.
Scarlet is a perfect descriptor for the bright reds of autumn.
用scarlet形容秋天的亮红色再恰当不过。
maroon [mə'ruːn]
栗色
Maroon as the name for a dark red color, derives from French marron, which is the Spanish name for a chestnut. The earliest examples in English of the word refer to the reddish-brown nut, with the color sense dating from the late-18th century.
Prior to the 16th century, auburn would not have been an ideal word to describe an autumn color. It derives ultimately from the Latin word albus, meaning "white," and originally designated a yellowish or brownish white color.
However, by the 16th century, the word's meaning shifted to goldish and reddish shades of brown. It seems variant spellings of the word, such as abrune, abroun, and abrown, that resembled Middle English brun, meaning "brown," brought on the color change.
The ghastly history of lurid makes it a fitting adjective for dying pale-yellow leaves. It is from luridus, the Latin word for such a color, and in the 17th century, it was used to describe the pale yellowish color of diseased or bruised skin.
Crimson and carmine, words for deep reds, are doublets from the same Arabic source. The color crimson is a deep purplish red that is found in a dye made from pulverized kermes, or the dried bodies of insects. The name of the color and of the insect has been traced back to qirmiz, the Arabic name for the insect. The word crimson entered English in the 15th century via Old Spanish cremesín.
