French SE: Pourquoi ces 6 adjectifs de couleur s'accordent même s'ils référencent un nom?
There are different classes of colour adjective in Spanish, corresponding to differing degrees of lexicalisation. As the language evolves words may adapt and progress from one class to another.
1. Old colours: gender & number
The oldest colour terms are fully lexicalised and inflect for both gender and number:
- blanco, negro, rojo, amarillo
This includes a number of terms for shades of red (among other colours):
- rubio, carrubio, rúbeo, rútilo, rufo, royo, roso, rubicundo
- albo, pardo, tinto, flavo, indio, cerúleo, coccíneo, glauco, cárdeno, rodeno, endrino, bermejo, sobermejo, colorado, alzán/alzano, zarco, cándido
There was a richness of such colours in centuries past, but many of these have fallen out of modern use:
- blavo, bazo, hosco, presado, leucofeo, rucio, musco/musgo, loro, albero, gilvo
Note that some of these are gender invariant due to their morphology:
- azul, verde, gris, añil, carmesí
antiquated
jalde, buriel, blao, azur, albar, rubor
2. Old colours: number
A few of these historic colour adjectives have stubbornly remained invariant for gender though:
- púrpura, escarlata, índigo
These appear to have been blocked by parallel forms developing (purpúreo/a, indio/a).
3. New colours: (number)
Newer colour adjectives are usually nouns which have been co-opted for their appearance. As such, more recent ones are generally treated as noun-complements, and not adjectives proper, and are invariant for gender. The longer they have been in the lexicon the more likely they are to inflect for number however:
flowers
rosa, violeta, lila, lavanda, malva, fucsia, azafrán, grosella, amaranto, bujarasol
fruit
naranja, granate, limón, fresa, oliva, marrón, albaricoque, cereza, vainilla
wood
caoba, nogal
precious stones
turquesa, esmeralda, amatista, ámbar, jade, azabache, marfil, porcelana
metals
plata, oro, cobalto
minerals etc
ocre, almagre, grana, teja
proper names
corinto, carmelita, siena, etíope
misc
crema, café, vino, burdeos, sepia, coral, miel, tabaco, lacre, aloque, salmón
Loanwords are treated similarly:
- magenta, bermellón, verdeceledón, cinzolín, rosicler
- cian, caqui, carmín, beis/beige, punzó, grancé, cari
Compound nouns with cardinal colours (e.g. azul, verde), and abbreviations thereof, also remain invariant:
- celeste, ultramar, marino, turquí
- verdegay, verdemar, verdemontaña, verdoyo, verdín
4. New colours adapted: gender & number
Newer colour adjectives may undergo two methods of lexicalisation to become inflectable adjectives proper.
1. inflection of bare adjective:
- bruno, blondo, cetrino/citrino, habano, columbino, ígneo, prieto, franciscano, solferino, araguato, canario
This does indeed occur with some feminine nouns in -a
- castaño, cenizo, canelo, gualdo, cano
2. suffixing:
The most common suffix is -ado:
- rosado, violado, (a)naranjado, morado/amoratado/moracho, limonado, datilado, aceitunado, aberenjenado, ahigadado, azafranado, noguerado, (a)brasilado, agarbanzado
- nevado, melado, apizarrado, atabacado, acanelado, achocolatado, ahumado, ahuesado, almacigado/amacigado, gualdado, cañamonado, galbanado, gamuzado, anteado, (re)tostado, (a)nacarado, encarnado, achiotado, acaparrosado, apiñonado, amelcochado, azopilotado, asalmonado, atezado, acarminado, acabellado
- agrisado
- (a)perlado, azufrado, turquesado
- dorado, plateado, bronceado, encobrado, argentado
- leonado, alobunado, alagartado
But a number of others may be adopted:
- moreno, cardenillo, fosforito, trigueño
- ceniciento, peciento/pizmiento
- plomizo, cobrizo, pajizo
- cenizoso, herrumbroso, barroso, cafesoso
- gríseo, róseo, zafíreo, carmíneo, cárneo, sanguíneo
- grisáceo, violáceo, purpúreo, rosáceo, oliváceo, porráceo, ocráceo
Precious stones tend to take -ino:
- perlino, zafirino, opalino, esmeraldino, ambarino, encarnadino, purpurino, sanguino
Sources:
- Lexicalization patterns in color naming: A cross-linguistic perspective
- Colour and colour naming: Crosslinguistic approaches
- The Syntax of Relational Adjectives in Romance: a Cartographic Approach
- DPD: colores