Citrine (colour)


Citrine is a colour, the most common reference for which is certain coloured varieties of quartz which are a medium deep shade of golden yellow. It is the birthstone for those born in November. Citrine has been summarized at various times as yellow, greenish-yellow, brownish yellow or orange.
The original reference point for the citrine colour was the citron fruit. The first recorded use of citrine as a colour in English was in 1386. It was borrowed from a medieval Latin and classical Latin word with the same meaning. In late medieval and early modern English the citrine colour-name was applied in a wider variety of contexts than it is today and could be "reddish or brownish yellow; or orange; or amber ".
In today's English citrine as a colour is mostly confined to the contexts of gemstones, including quartz, and some animal and plant names. E.g., the citrine wagtail, an Asian bird species with golden-yellow plumage, or the citrine warbler, citrine canary-flycatcher, citrine forktail, etc.