1 June: Olive Green

Today is National Olive Day. It celebrates the fruit, but since I've already covered the olive fruit (here), today I'm presenting facts about the colour olive.

1. Is it really Green, though? It could be said to be a shade of dark Yellow, since adding Black or Grey to yellow paint would result in shades of olive. However, darker shades of olive can be achieved by mixing dark colours with green.
2. In computers and printing, dark olive is composed of roughly 33.3% Red, 42% green and 18.4% Blue.
3. The word "olive" referring to a colour first appeared in late Middle English, between 1150 and 1500.
4. Olivine is a mineral, a magnesium Iron silicate which is common in the Earth's subsurface but weathers quickly on the surface. It has also been found in meteorites, on the Moon and on Mars. Gemstones made from this are mineral peridot and chrysolite. Its olive green colour is thought to be a result of traces of nickel. In Europe it is most commonly found in Scandinavia where is marketed as an ideal rock for sauna stones, because it is resistant to repeated heating and cooling.
5. Mrs Delany, an 18th century writer, recorded having a room "painted a sort of olive for the sake of my pictures".
6. In interior design, olive is considered a warming colour.
7. In fashion, olive is considered to be a conservative colour which is flattering to most skin tones.
8. Talking of skin tones, "olive-skinned" is sometimes used to describe shades of medium-toned skin which is darker than average for Caucasians, for example, people from the Mediterranean area.
9. Olive drab is a colour often used for military uniforms such as those of the US Army during WWII. Soldiers often referred to their uniforms as "OD's" because of the colour. Since 1981, however, US soldiers wear a camouflage pattern called “woodland” - flecks of sand, Brown, green and black.
10. In Aura Soma, a colour system devised by Vicky Wall, olive represents robustness, integration of male and female, female leadership, female wisdom, flow, releasing that which is stuck, and bitterness.