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Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

114: Begonia, average coral, and sea pink - Defining colour terms with Kory Stamper

Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne

Science

4.8791 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

begonia: a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral (see ‘coral’ 3B), bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger than sweet William, called also ‘gaiety’. In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about trying to pin down definitions for colour terms with Kory Stamper, author of the new book TRUE COLOR! Kory is a lexicographer and was Associate Editor at Merriam-Webster for almost two decades. Her first book was Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, which we also loved, and now Kory is back with the fruits of her dive into the mid-20th century quest to standardize colour terms, taking us from dying fabrics to painting cars to assessing grades of maple syrup. Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice: https://pod.link/1186056137/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjI4NzE3NTMzMA Read the transcript here: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/811565836536086528/transcript-episode-114-begonia-average-coral Announcements: In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about childlore! We talk about our favourite bits of childlore from our own childhoods, such as skipping/clapping rhymes, counting-off rhymes, and fortune-telling. We also talk about tracking down the sources for "All Right, Vegemite!", a compilation of Australian children's chants and rhymes from Lauren's childhood, selectively choosing to pass on less racist and sexist versions of the rhymes, the relationship between childlore and memes, as well as research from folklorists and anthropologists on childlore around the world. Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 100+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds: https://www.patreon.com/posts/152094450 For links to things mentioned in this episode: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/811565466203111424/lingthusiasm-episode-114-begonia-average-coral

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics.

0:22.5

I'm Lauren Gorn.

0:23.5

And I'm Gretchen McCulloch.

0:24.7

And today we're getting enthusiastic about color and how we describe it with Corey Stamper.

0:29.6

But first, our most recent bonus episode was all about idioms.

0:33.8

We go the extra mile to get to the bottom of why we should cut idioms some slack.

0:39.9

It's easier said than done.

0:41.9

Go to patreon.com slashlingthusiasm to get this and many other bonus episodes. Corey Stamper is a lexicographer and was associate editor at Merrimb Webster for almost two decades.

1:05.8

Her first book was Word by Word, The Secret Life of Dictionaries.

1:08.8

Her second book is out 31st of March,

1:11.5

2026 and is titled True Color, the Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color, from Azure

1:17.5

to Zinc Pink. Welcome, Corey. Thank you. It's good to be here with both of you. It's so

1:22.5

lovely to have you here. And we're already off to a start where I'm like, you don't say Azure.

1:28.3

What?

1:29.3

So we're doing so great.

1:32.3

Corey, how did you get into lexicography?

1:35.3

It was pretty much an accident.

1:38.3

Back in my undergraduate, I was a medieval studies major, so I studied languages and literature primarily.

1:45.7

And after I got out of college, I thought, well, now what am I going to do?

1:51.8

And I answered, this is how long ago it was, I answered a want ad in the newspaper.

1:56.8

Oh, yeah.

1:57.9

Wow.

...

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