of color

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of color

Where it comes from

Attested since the late 18th century, initially in reference to a category of mixed-race (partially black, partially white) people in the Americas; compare French de couleur (attested since at least 1779 in gens de couleur), Spanish de color. The phrase continued in occasional use throughout the 1800s and 1900s and was used by e.g. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, around which time its modern meaning began to take shape. Its use by black activists picked up from the 1970s (e.g. black women who used "women of color" at the National Women's Conference in 1977) onward, reaching wide circulation by the 1990s.

adjective of colour

US, not comparable Nonwhite; of a race other than white, for example black. It is to him that we owe the story that Talleyrand outraged the susceptibilities of the Philadelphians by his open admiration for a woman of colour with whom he frequently appeared in public.
historical, not comparable Belonging to a category of people with mixed black and white ancestry in the Americas in the 18th and early 19th centuries. [page 1:] Chap. 1. … The inhabitants of the French part of St. Domingo, as of all the West Indian Islands, were composed of three great classes: 1st, Pure whites. 2d, People of colour, and blacks of free condition. 3d, Negroes in a state of slavery. The reader is apprised that the class which, by a

Translations

Every language

adj of a race other than white

Español	de color
中文	有色 yǒusè
Português	de cor
Français	de couleur, racisé
Deutsch	farbig
Italiano	di colore
Română	de culoare
Русский	цветно́й cvetnój
Tiếng Việt	da màu

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MLA

"of color." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/of%20color. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

of color. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/of%20color

Chicago

"of color." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/of%20color.

BibTeX

@misc{of_color_2026,
  title = {of color},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/of%20color},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}