. . . Ase Roser When Hit Redes’: Semantic Shifts and Cultural Overtones in the Middle English Colour Lexicon

Incidental references to PPl’s use of the color lexicon: in contrast with the works of the Pearl poet, “colour” is used far more than “hue”, and in the whole range of its etymological meanings – viz. as “disguise, appearance”, as a heraldic reference, and once (B.19.242) in the sense of “paints” (earlier than the OED’s earliest attestation). PPl also employs parachromatic terms denoting or connoting dark or darkness much more frequently than the poems of the Pearl MS.