Y is the most difficult letter in ABC Wednesday (apart from the other 25) so this week I’ve gone for the obvious — Y is for Yellow.
In fact, yellow can be a common and dominant colour, especially if you live in the nearby town of Ashton as you can see from my photo on the left. It shows the great slab of yellow that is the Ikea store in the centre of town which can be seen for miles around.
Unlike other Ikea stores, this one isn’t out-of-town and it is multi-storey rather than being on the level so it does tend to dominate the skyline.
But the big question about yellow is why isn’t it a surname when other colours are? White, black, green, brown, grey and even pink and orange all feature as second names, so why not yellow?
Well it was, at least once upon a time. The place was Yorkshire and at least one person claims Lancelot Yellow (1723-1797) as an ancestor.
But there are more famous “yellows” — David and Jim, for example, and quite a few Americans that I’m not familiar with. I’m speaking, of course, about the surname Bowie.
The name is of Irish and Scottish origin and is derived from the Gaelic nickname buidhe, meaning yellow or fair-haired which Jim Bowie most definitely wasn’t as you can see from the image I’ve lifted from Wikipedia.
But I can’t leave my yellow subject without including Yellow by Coldplay — click the image link below to watch the video.
maybe a common word, but well (Cold)played
ROG, ABC Wednesday team
What a great yellow post! I never thought of it this way and loved your presentation.
Good job…. Like your Yellow’s.
Interesting comment you make about “yellow” not being a surname – never thought about that before.
Leslie
abcw team
I never thought about yellow being a surname either. Very interesting information.
What do you think of the yellow press? And isn’t yellow the colour used for cowards? In my country yellow is the colour of hate. I don’t know why because I like yellow.
Thanks for the comments. I hadn’t thought of the Yellow Press. In the UK we more often refer to the Red Tops, particularly relevant at the moment.
And I’ve never come across yellow as the colour of hate!
What a lot of yellow information! – I love shopping at Ikea – but I don,t think the store on the M6 is yellow – but yes ColdPlay are the best – I love their yellow song – Jane
True it is that I’ve never met a Mr or Ms Yellow and interesting that Bowie refers to that colour. Hadn’t heard the Yellow song by ColdPlay, I don’t think, and that was nice to hear. Good play on Y today!
WHOA!! That yellow is BRIGHT!
Jane x
obviously like your web-site but you have to check the spelling on several of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I to find it very troublesome to tell the reality then again I will certainly come again again.
It seems that perhaps Mr (or Mrs) CRB at Granada TV comes into the category of “Are you ‘avin’ a giraffe?” and perhaps could be filed in the drawer marked “slightly round the twist.” Having said that, he (or she) might be a perfectly good egg.