Learn English – What word did Middle English have in place of “light” as in: “light blue”, “light green” etc.

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In English, we often use the adjective light before another colour to express a whiter shade of hue. For example, light blue, light green, light brown, etc.
The term pale is used in a similar way, e.g.; pale grey, pale yellow, and pale red.

Etymonline dates this usage of light:

light (adj.2) (see light (n.)). Meaning "pale-hued" is from 1540s.

and for pale early 1300s

pale (adj.) early 14c., from Old French paile "pale, light-colored" (12c., Modern French pâle), from Latin pallidus "pale, pallid, wan, colorless," from pallere "be pale, grow pale,"

If we look at names for “light blue”, only azure predates Early Modern English

  • azure early 14c., from Old French azur, asur, a color name…
  • sky blue is said to have first appeared in print in 1704

    A Collection of Voyages and Travels (London: Awnsham and John Churchill, 1704), vol. 2, p. 322, where John Nieuhoff describes certain flowers: "they are of a lovely sky blue colour, and yellow in the middle" Wikipedia

  • cyan (originally called cyan-blue) meaning ‘light blue’ is dated 1879

To illustrate my point more clearly, here is a Google Ngram set at British English, which suggests that the combination, light + name of colour, began from mid 17th century.

Ngram chart

Questions

  • How did Middle and Early Modern English speakers say that a colour was light?
  • Did they place term white before a colour; e.g. whit blewe (white blue)?
  • What does whyte russet mean? Is it a ‘pale reddish-brown’?

Best Answer

It seems that you could use Fair, Fade or Faint (there might be others)

Fair

and its other forms

fair (adj.) Also (early) faȝer, faier, fei(e)r, vair, fare, fer(e, war, fæger, fægerra, fægrost

According to the Middle English dictionary from Umich

(a) Light, bright, or shining (as opposed to dark); (b) of persons: light of complexion or color of hair and eyes; fair.

It seems to have been used with color (other than applied to skin or complexion):

Found at least one reference as cited in Altenglische legenden ... Horstmann, Carl, ed. b. 1851.

þat þis on schal beo fair blu cloth

...

Faint

Of things, actions, functions, etc.: weak, feeble; impaired, poor; pale (color)...

...

Fade

Of color or things having color: lacking in brilliance; pale, discolored, dim; dull; fade-heued.

(Fade-heued meaning "light-colored")

>c1300 SLeg.Mich.(LdMisc 108) 672: Ho-so hath of þe eorþe mest, he is..Of fade [vr. vad] colur.

...

As for your example of "whyte Russet" I think russet is used here in the sense of

"a serviceable woolen cloth, usu. of plain or subdued color & usu. worn by the poor or by workingmen (also by the Duke of Suffolk as a sea-cloak)"

the same way Whites can be used for "clothes usually of white color" in modern sense, Russet is used by analogy for the piece of cloth usually of the color Russet or the fabric material itself with which one makes russets.

See here in The Stonor letters and papers, 1290-1483; ed. for the Royal historical society, from the original documents in the Public record office, by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, for Russet used with the color Black, for example, in the sense of piece of cloth or fabric material.

a ȝerde off blake russet karyssey to make Richert Baron a dublet

a payre off hosyn off russet karyssey,

Item a gowne of russet furryd wt blakke,

another example of russet used in the sense of fabric.

And is as gladde of a goune · of a graye russet /

So the answer is I don't think whyte russet mean a light russet (color).

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