Turquoise

Turquoise is a colour between blue and green. Ask two people which one it is closer to and you will get three answers and one person leaving the room.^[1]

The colour is named after the stone turquoise, whose name comes from the French for “Turkish”, because the stone reached Europe through Turkey. It was mostly mined in Persia. Turquoise is therefore a colour named after a stone named after a country it did not come from, and has learned not to bring it up.

Blue or green

The Blue School holds that turquoise is a blue that has spent too long near plants. The Green School holds that it is a green that has been on holiday. A 1992 summit tried to settle the matter by inventing a third category, “sort of both”, which both schools rejected as too green and too blue respectively.^[2]

Swimming pools

The water in a swimming pool is not turquoise. The tiles are turquoise, so that the water looks the way people think water should look. Water itself has been asked about this and remains clear.

Where found

• Tropical seas, mostly in brochures.
• Swimming pools (see above; it is the tiles).
• Bathrooms decorated in 1974.
• Turquoise, the stone, which had it first.

See also

• Water – not actually turquoise
• Rock (rock) – where the colour started

References

1. Cyan, C. (2005). Neither, Really. Lagoon Press.
2. Tile, T. (1974). Our New Bathroom. Avocado Books. p. 1.