The word is dropped the Red is too much

"When I don't have a blue, I put the Red", said Picasso. Hard cash, but red is a nothing jaded. More than a century that he style to the post by chromatic rival in the ranking of favorite colors. However, it is not to be ashamed of its long history. Already present in Indo-European civilization, it has many terms in the Latin language, where the blue shines by its absence. Long, it is even considered as the most beautiful color - partly because of its colouring virtues - reigning in master of ceremonial clothing. The Russians not use the same word, Krasny, red and beautiful to say "It is the colour par excellence, the strongest, the more nuanced. "To the middle ages, it was, with black and white, one of the three dominant colors", said Annie Mollard-Desfour, linguist at the CNRS at the flaming hair and author of a dictionary on red (1). The red, it is the ginger, the first concerned who speak best. In the preface to the book, Sonia Rykiel says his flame in his hair colour "screaming red", in line with his "extreme" temperament: "red and red, it was too, but it was too good." The word is dropped, the Red is too much. Also excessive that blue is consensual, symbol of a love erotic and sensual, more red-passion that flower-blue. Two centuries ago it employed him even as a superlative, which gave: "dear Madam, you are beautiful red" equivalent toned down to "'re you too good" version 2010.

"Is the most ambiguous color, capable of the best and worst, can say everything and its opposite", says Annie Mollard-Desfour. Blush of pleasure, after to be angry all red, it has been. Sociologist Michel Pastoureau, specialist of colors (2), is still surprised its "great eternal gap between love and hate, life and death, the divine and the evil, the power of the elite and the proletarian revolution". Red as blood essential to life, and flowing in time of war. Red, as the mantle of Christ and the flames of hell. Red, symbol of the Kings and dignitaries from the army or the Church, but the revolutions and Communist ideology. Until the 19th century, to be the most beautiful at the altar, the brides wore red... as prostitutes, to better entice the barge. And that said of the little Red Riding Hood colour can both embody the cruelty of the predator, hemoglobin of mère-grand, the innocence of the girl or the ulterior that, on the threshold of puberty, which wanted to "see the big bad wolf"

Today, red refers to the distinction (red label, red carpet...), difficulty (red track, red belt...), but also and especially dangerous, prohibited (red list, red plan...). In the 1970s, some French insurance companies were paying a special tax on owners of red cars, deemed at risk! In our disenchanted societies, its scent of scandal is would be slightly weathered, according to Michel Pastoureau. Today, wear a poppy tea is more nothing of transgressive. The evidence, the color of underwear which managed more than men is, now, white, symbol of virginity. Red card

(1) The red, CNRS Editions, CNRS dictionaries collection.

(2) The colours of our souvenirs, éditions du Seuil.