Colour versus Shade

[Koko]

What do they mean to you? Let your ranting flow, as well. This tends to cause many a discussion IME, so I will just let it happen and hope we can still find a way to keep calm. Though, I also hope you will disobey and keep what you have to say to yourself as I tend to get very defensive.

Personally, a shade is any one tint or hue (light or dark version of a colour). A colour is strictly one basic form which can then become a shade (therefore, I count pink as a shade of red).

I absolutely hate when people call black and grey and white shades. I can see shades of black just as clearly as shades of red, blue, orange, any other colour. The shades of black are different from those of grey, too. So it bothers me when some will take my definitions above and try to use them against me by saying that there are no shades of black. A small proof I can give is that if you lightly shade in black on a piece of paper, it will show signs of remaining black. Continue shade in a spot vigorously with grey, and it still remains grey without signs of blackness. Though, this could be a perceptive thing, I deny it and stand with my belief that the so-called "shades" are colours.

[vijayjohn]

I guess I agree, but I also don't think I care all that much about shades anyway.

[linguoboy]

For me, the primary meaning of "colour" is basic color term and a "shade" is a lighter or darker variation of one of those basic colours. So pink isn't a "shade" of red to me, even though a mixture of say, blue and white or green and white would be.

Now, since grey represents an admixture of white and black, where you draw the line between a "shade of black" and a "shade of grey" is pretty arbitrary. For me, it would probably vary according to context--not just the speech situation, but also, say, what other colours it was next to or whether we were talking about the colour of a piece of cloth or a dog or a patch of sky.

[Koko]

Well, as I said, I do perceive a clear difference between greys and blacks. But, I suppose that you do share a reasonable point, linguo. Perhaps, it is even more reasonable to say that grey is in fact a shade of black (though, would it also be one of white?).

[linguoboy]

Well, as I said, I do perceive a clear difference between greys and blacks. But, I suppose that you do share a reasonable point, linguo. Perhaps, it is even more reasonable to say that grey is in fact a shade of black (though, would it also be one of white?).

Well, even though white is a combination of all colours, we paradoxically perceive it as the complete absence of them. So there's a pretty strict limit on how much of another colour you can add to white before it's perceived as no longer being a "shade of white".