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Talkback: Dianthus: In the pink
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You are correct. Pinking shears were invented in the 14th century (pinken is a German word meaning to peck). The colour pink comes from the flower rather than the other way round.
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before we started to use 'pink' as a colour as well as a 'pinked' shape we used to call pink coloured things 'rose' like the french word for 'pink'. Not sure what the anglo saxons called it though. Same with 'blue' for purple which we gardeners still use today as in "lavender's blue dilly dilly' which it clearly isn't, and anglo saxons would also have said 'violet' after the name of the flower not having a word for it. All this makes me think it must have been difficult describing colours if you were an anglo saxon.