Pink

Pink is a pale tint of red or rose color. It is often described as the color of certain flowers. In the field of optics, pink refers to pale shades between red and bluish-red. These colors usually have medium to high lightness. They also show low to moderate saturation. While many people call it a tint of red, most pinks are actually slightly bluish. They sit between red and magenta on the color spectrum. Some specific variations, such as salmon, lean closer to orange.

The name "pink" comes from the genus Dianthus. These are flowering plants known as pinks. The name is derived from the frilled edges of these flowers. The word "to pink" actually dates back to the 14th century. In that time, it meant to decorate something with a perforated or punched pattern. This linguistic history survives today in pinking shears. These are hand-held scissors that cut a zig-zagged line. This specific cut helps to prevent fabric from fraying.

In nature, pink serves several important biological functions. Many flowers use pink to attract birds and insects. This attraction is necessary for the process of pollination. The color in these plants comes from natural pigments called anthocyanins. These same pigments are responsible for the color in raspberries. Pink also appears in the sky during sunrises and sunsets. This occurs because of a process called Rayleigh scattering. As white sunlight travels through the atmosphere, air molecules scatter some colors away. Blue and green light have shorter wavelengths and scatter more strongly. They are removed from the beam of light. This leaves the longer wavelengths, such as orange, red, and pink, to reach the eye. Large cloud droplets can also scatter this light to create a pinkish glow.

Artists have used pink for centuries to convey different meanings. In the 13th and 14th centuries, painters like Cimabue and Duccio used pink for the Christ child. During the Renaissance, pink was often used to represent the color of flesh for faces and hands. Painters used a pigment called light cinabrese for this purpose. This was a mixture of a red earth pigment called sinopia and a white pigment called Bianco San Genovese. The Renaissance artist Cennino Cennini described making this by mixing two parts cinabrese with one part white lime. In the 18th century, Madame de Pompadour helped make the color popular in fashion. She even had a custom pink made by the Sevres porcelain factory. This specific tint included nuances of blue, black, and yellow.

The social meaning of pink has shifted significantly throughout history. In the 19th century, pink was often associated with boys in England. Because men wore red uniforms, pink was seen as a lighter, masculine version of red. However, the 20th century brought a major change. In the 1930s and 1940s, the marketplace began to shift. Stores found that people were increasingly buying pink for girls and blue for boys. A major turning point occurred in 1953. During the first inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, his wife Mamie Eisenhower wore a pink gown. This helped link pink to "ladylike" women. The arrival of the Barbie doll in 1959 further cemented this association. In the 20th century, pink also became bolder due to chemical dyes. Designer Elsa Schiaparelli created "shocking pink" in 1931 by mixing magenta with white.

Pink also has a complex history in human rights and culture. In the 1930s and 1940s, Nazi concentration camps forced homosexual inmates to wear a pink triangle. Because of this history, the pink triangle has become a modern symbol for the gay rights movement. In literature, pink often carries symbolic weight. In the 1835 story "Young Goodman Brown," a pink ribbon represents innocence. In Spanish and Italian cultures, a "pink novel" refers to a specific type of romantic novel. These different uses show how a single color can represent everything from innocence to political struggle.

Finally, pink appears in modern technology and science. Some grow lights used for plants emit a combination of red and blue wavelengths. To the human eye, these lights appear pink because they align with how chlorophyll absorbs light. Pink neon signs are also made using specific chemical methods. One method uses neon gas combined with a blue or purple phosphor. This creates a warmer, more reddish shade. Another method uses an argon and mercury blend with a red phosphor. This results in a cooler, more purplish shade of pink. Even in audio engineering, there is a concept called pink noise. This is a signal where the power is proportional to the reciprocal of the frequency.