Cerulean

Cerulean, also spelled caerulean, may be applied to a range of colors from deep blue, sky-blue, bright blue or azure color through greenish blue colors. The first recorded use of cerulean as a color name in English was in 1590. The word is probably derived from the Latin word caeruleus, "dark blue, blue or blue-green", which in turn probably derives from caelulum, diminutive of caelum, "heaven, sky". In classical times, cerulean was used to describe blue pigments, particularly mixtures of copper and cobaltous oxides. These early attempts to create sky blue colors were often less than satisfactory due to greenish hues and lack of permanence. When the pigment cerulean blue (shown in the color box to the right) was invented, it largely...