Icterine
Some colors are very beautiful yet lack beautiful names. Such is the case with icterine, which sounds like a particularly nasty fruit, but turns out to be a lovely pale yellow. Although the bright spring color is pretty enough, the roots of its ghastly name are also ugly. The name is derived from the ancient Greek word “ikteros” which means jaundice. The color icterine is used by ornithologists to describe birds with pale yellow feathers and there are several birds with icterine in their common or scientific name. The color is not limited to birds: searching through internet images, one discovers various garments, iphone covers, and other consumer goods in shades of icterine, but it seems to be more popular in Europe than in the Americas.
The Icterine Warbler (Hippolais icterina)
ferrebeekeeper 
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
February 23, 2013 at 10:31 AM
Beatrix
Oh I can’t help it-
(Frank Sinatra not Led Zeppelin)
Icterine, she is all they say
With mascara’d eye and chapeaux by Dache.
Icterine, with her lips of flame
If the color keeps, Louis Philippe’s to blame.
And I’ve seen clothes on Icterine
Where the label says “From Macy’s Mezzanine”.
Yes, she’s got the guys in a whirl, but she’s only fooling one girl
She’s only fooling Icterine!
February 23, 2013 at 10:33 AM
Beatrix
oops sorry about the typo in Icterine’s name!
February 23, 2013 at 9:39 PM
Wayne
Poets get substantial artistic license–but I went in and fixed it for you.
February 23, 2013 at 5:41 PM
Wayne
Flaming lips sound beautiful but alarming. I’m not sure whether to be scared or aroused…This reminds me I need to pick up some icterines…I mean tangerines.