Editing Green (section)

== Symbolism and associations ==
=== Safety and permission ===
[[File:LED traffic light.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.6|A green light is the universal symbol of permission to go]]

Green can communicate safety to proceed, as in [[traffic light]]s.<ref name = OED>Oxford English Dictionary</ref> Green and red were standardized as the colors of international railroad signals in the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Miller|first=Aaron|title=The Reason Traffic Lights Are Red, Yellow, and Green|url=https://www.thrillist.com/cars/nation/traffic-light-colors-history|access-date=2020-10-20|website=Thrillist|date=October 6, 2016 }}</ref> The first traffic light, using green and red gas lamps, was erected in 1868 in front of the [[Houses of Parliament]] in London. It exploded the following year, injuring the policeman who operated it. In 1912, the first modern electric traffic lights were put up in [[Salt Lake City]], [[Utah]]. Red was chosen largely because of its high visibility, and its association with danger, while green was chosen largely because it could not be mistaken for red. Today green lights universally signal that a system is turned on and working as it should. In many video games, green signifies both [[Health (gaming)|health]] and completed objectives, opposite red.

=== Nature, vivacity, and life ===
Green is the color most commonly associated in Europe and the United States with nature, vivacity and life.<ref>Eva Heller (2000), ''Psychologie de la couleur – effets et symboliques'', pp. 90. 47 percent of respondents surveyed associated green with ''nature'' and ''natural'', 18 percent choosing white. 32 percent associated green with ''vivacity'' (20 percent chose yellow), and 40 percent with  ''good health'' (20 percent with red)</ref>
It is the color of many environmental organizations, such as [[Greenpeace]], and of the [[Green Parties]] in Europe. Many cities have designated a garden or park as a green space, and use green trash bins and containers. A green cross is commonly used to designate pharmacies in Europe.

In China, green is associated with the east, with sunrise, and with life and growth.<ref>Yoon, Hong-Key. ''The Culture of Feng-Shui in Korea.'' Lexington: Lexington Books, 2006. {{ISBN|0-7391-1348-8}} p. 27</ref> In Thailand, the color green is considered [[wikt:auspicious|auspicious]] for those born on a Wednesday (light green for those born at night).<ref>{{cite web
 |url          = http://www.usmta.com/Thai-Birthday.htm
 |title        = Thai birth day colors and buddha image
 |date         = October 16, 2004
 |publisher    = United States Muay Thai Association Inc
 |access-date  = November 14, 2009
 |quote        = An innovation of the Ayutthaya period.
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100113135805/http://www.usmta.com/Thai-Birthday.htm
 |archive-date = January 13, 2010
 
 }}</ref>

=== Springtime, freshness, and hope ===
Green is the color most commonly associated in the United States and Europe with springtime, freshness, and hope.{{sfn|Heller|2009|pp=91–92}}{{efn|1= 62 percent of respondents surveyed associated green with ''springtime'', (18 percent choosing yellow); 27 percent associated green with ''freshness'' (24 percent choosing blue.)   48 percent associated green with ''hope'' (18 percent choosing blue){{sfn|Heller|2009|pp=91–92}} }} Green is often used to symbolize rebirth and renewal and immortality. In [[Ancient Egypt]]; the god [[Osiris]], king of the underworld, was depicted as green-skinned.<ref name="deVries76">{{cite book |last=de Vries |first=Ad |title=Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery |year=1976 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofsymb0000vrie/page/226 226–28] |publisher=North-Holland Publishing Company |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-0-7204-8021-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofsymb0000vrie/page/226 }}</ref> Green as the color of hope is connected with the color of springtime; hope represents the faith that things will improve after a period of difficulty, like the renewal of flowers and plants after the winter season.{{sfn|Heller|2009|p=94}}

=== Youth and inexperience ===
Green the color most commonly associated in Europe and the United States with youth. It also often is used to describe anyone young, inexperienced, probably by the analogy to immature and unripe fruit.<ref name = diction>{{cite web| title =Results for "green"| website =Dictionary.com| publisher =Lexico Publishing Corp.| year =2007| url =http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/green| access-date = November 22, 2007}}</ref>{{sfn|Heller|2009|p=92}}{{efn|1= 22 percent of respondents surveyed associated green with ''youth'', (16 percent choosing yellow){{sfn|Heller|2009|p=92}} }} Examples include [[green cheese]], a term for a fresh, unaged cheese, and [[Cowboy#Symbolism|greenhorn]], an inexperienced person.

=== Food and diet ===
[[File:FSSAI new labels for veg and non-veg.svg|alt=Vegetarian symbol - square with green outline with green circle inside; New Non Vegetarian symbol - square with redish-brown outline with redish-brown triangle inside; Old Non Vegetarian symbol - square with redish-brown outline with redish-brown circle inside, not for human consumption symbol - square with black outline with black X inside|thumb|Indian FSSAI labels. The green dot symbol (top-left) identifies lacto-vegetarian food.]]The color green has been increasingly used by food companies, governments, and practitioners themselves to identify veganism and vegetarianism. The government of [[India]] requires food that is vegetarian to be marked with a green circle as part of the ''Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006'' with changes to symbolism since but still maintaining the color green. In 2021, India introduced a green V to exclusively label vegan options.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.veganfirst.com/article/fssai-introduces-vegan-logo-for-food-products-in-india | title=FSSAI Introduces Vegan Logo for Food Products in India }}</ref> In the west, the [[V-Label]], a green V designed by the [[European Vegetarian Union]], has been used by food distributors to label vegan and vegetarian options.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.v-label.eu/v-label/the-history-of-the-v-label | title=The history of the V-Label | date=November 6, 2018 }}</ref>

=== Calm, tolerance, and the agreeable ===
Surveys also show that green is the color most associated with the calm, the agreeable, and tolerance. Red is associated with heat, blue with cold, and green with an agreeable temperature. Red is associated with dry, blue with wet, and green, in the middle, with dampness. Red is the most active color, blue the most passive; green, in the middle, is the color of neutrality and calm, sometimes used in architecture and design for these reasons.{{efn|
For an example of the use of green in architecture, see the article on the [[Science Faculty building, UTS|University of Technology, Sydney Science Faculty building]].
}}
Blue and green together symbolize harmony and balance.{{sfn|Heller|2009|p=90}} Experimental studies also show this calming effect in a statistical significant decrease of negative emotions<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last=Gruber |first=N.
 |year=2018
 |title=Green for hope and red for fear? Testing the color effect on the implicit achievement motive
 |journal=Romanian Journal of Applied Psychology
 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=1–6
 |doi=10.24913/rjap.20.1.01
|doi-access=free
 }}
</ref>
and increase of creative performance.<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last1=Lichtenfeld |first1=S.       |last2=Elliot |first2=A.J.
 |last3=Maier       |first3=M.A.     |last4=Pekrun |first4=R.
 |year=2012
 |title=Fertile green: Green facilitates creative performance
 |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
 |volume=38 |issue=6 |pages=784–797
|doi=10.1177/0146167212436611 |pmid=22427383 |s2cid=13101980 |url=https://dro.dur.ac.uk/26129/1/26129.pdf }}
</ref>

=== Jealousy and envy ===
Green is often associated with [[jealousy]] and [[envy]]. The expression "green-eyed monster" was first used by [[William Shakespeare]] in [[Othello]]: "it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on." Shakespeare also used it in the [[Merchant of Venice]], speaking of "green-eyed jealousy".<ref name=hendrickson>{{cite book | last = Hendrickson | first = Robert | title = Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins | publisher = Facts on File Inc. | year = 1999 | page = [https://archive.org/details/factsonfileencyc00hend/page/6 6] | isbn = 978-0-8160-3266-2 | url = https://archive.org/details/factsonfileencyc00hend/page/6 }}</ref>

=== Love and sexuality ===
Green today is not commonly associated in Europe and the United States with love and sexuality,{{sfn|Heller|2009|pp=42, 55}} but in stories of the [[Middle Ages|medieval period]] it sometimes represented love<ref name = span>Chamberlin, Vernon A. "Symbolic Green: A Time-Honored Characterizing Device in Spanish Literature." ''Hispania.'' 51.1 (Mar 1968) pp. 29–37</ref> and the base, natural desires of man.<ref>Goldhurst, William. "The Green and the Gold: The Major Theme of Gawain and the Green Knight." ''[[College English]].'' 20.2 (Nov 1958) pp. 61–65 {{doi|10.2307/372161}}</ref> It was the color of the [[Serpents in the Bible|serpent]] in the [[Garden of Eden]] who caused the downfall of [[Adam and Eve]]. However, for the [[troubadours]], green was the color of growing love, and light green clothing was reserved for young women who were not yet married.{{sfn|Heller|2009|pp=92–93}}

In Persian and Sudanese poetry, dark-skinned women, called "green" women, were considered erotic.<ref name="Greenness in the Field">Carla N. Daughtry, "[http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/MT/97/Fal97/mt14f97.html Greenness in the Field]", ''Michigan Today'', University of Michigan, Fall 1997 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090602132807/http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/MT/97/Fal97/mt14f97.html |date=June 2, 2009 }}</ref> The Chinese term for [[cuckold]] is "to wear a green hat."<ref>{{cite book| last = Sommer| first = Matthew Harvey| title = Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China| publisher = Stanford University Press| year = 2002| location = Stanford| page = 218| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=E6ClbegXuWUC| isbn = 978-0-8047-4559-8| access-date = July 27, 2008}}</ref> This was because in ancient China, prostitutes were called "the family of the green lantern" and a [[prostitute]]'s family would wear a green headscarf.{{sfn|Varichon|2000|p=205}}

In [[Victorian England]], the color green was associated with [[homosexuality]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://pflagdetroit.org/story_of_the_rainbow_flag.htm | title=The Story of the Rainbow Flag | website=HALO Newsletter | access-date=January 23, 2016}}</ref>

=== Dragons, fairies, monsters, and devils ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
Michael Pacher 004.jpg|''[[Wolfgang of Regensburg|Saint Wolfgang]] and the Devil'', by [[Michael Pacher]]
Liber Floridus page scan A, ca. 1460.jpg|A medieval illustration of a dragon (1460)
Chinese draak.jpg|A Chinese [[dragon dance]]
Leprechaun ill artlibre jnl.png|A 20th-century depiction of a [[leprechaun]]
</gallery>

In legends, folk tales and films, [[fairies]], [[dragons]], [[monsters]], and the devil are often shown as green.

In the Middle Ages, the devil was usually shown as either red, black or green. Dragons were usually green, because they had the heads, claws and tails of reptiles.

Modern [[Chinese dragons]] are also often green, but unlike European dragons, they are benevolent; Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, hurricane, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck. The Emperor of China usually used the dragon as a symbol of his imperial power and strength. The [[dragon dance]] is a popular feature of Chinese festivals.

In [[Irish folklore|Irish]] and [[English folklore]], the color was sometimes associated with witchcraft, and with [[faeries]] and spirits.<ref name=evil>Williams, Margaret. ''The Pearl Poet, His Complete Works''. Random House, 1967.</ref><ref>[[Vance Randolph|Randolph, Vance]]. ''The Devil's Pretty Daughter''. Columbia University Press, 1955. p. 215.</ref><ref>Hulbert, J. R. "[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924062186329&view=1up&seq=468&skin=2021&q1=%22green%20man%22 Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyʒt]". In: ''Modern philology'' Vol. 13 (1915/16). p. 456.</ref> The type of Irish fairy known as a [[leprechaun]] is commonly portrayed wearing a green suit, though before the 20th century he was usually described as wearing a red suit.

In theater and film, green was often connected with monsters and the inhuman. The earliest films of Frankenstein were in black and white, but in the poster for the 1935 version ''[[The Bride of Frankenstein]]'', the monster had a green face. Actor [[Bela Lugosi]] wore green-hued makeup for the role of [[Dracula]] in the 1927–1928 Broadway stage production.<ref>{{cite book| last = Skal | first= David J. |year = 1990| title = Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen| page = 85 | publisher = Andre Deutch| isbn= 978-0-233-98766-8}}</ref><ref>''Why The Devil Wears Green'', D. W. Robertson, Jr., Modern Language Notes, Vol. 69, No. 7. (Nov. 1954), pp. 470–72. The Johns Hopkins University Press.</ref>

=== Poison and sickness ===
Like other common colors, green has several completely opposite associations. While it is the color most associated by Europeans and Americans with good health, it is also the color most often associated with [[toxicity]] and poison. There was a solid foundation for this association; in the nineteenth century several popular paints and pigments, notably verdigris, vert de Schweinfurt and vert de Paris, were highly toxic, containing copper or arsenic.{{sfn|Heller|2009|p=96}}{{efn|1=In a survey cited, 45 percent of respondents associated green with toxicity, while 20 percent associated yellow.{{sfn|Heller|2009|p=96}} }} The intoxicating drink [[absinthe]] was known as "the green fairy".

A green tinge in the skin is sometimes associated with nausea and sickness.<ref>Ford, Mark. Self Improvement of Relationship Skills through Body Language. City: Llumina Press, 2004. {{ISBN|1-932303-79-0}} p. 81</ref> The expression 'green at the gills' means appearing sick. The color, when combined with gold, is sometimes seen as representing the fading of youth.<ref>Lewis, John S. "Gawain and the Green Knight." ''College English.'' 21.1 (Oct 1959) pp. 50–51</ref> In some Far East cultures the color green is used as a symbol of sickness or nausea.<ref>Kalb, Ira. ''Creating Your Own Marketing Makes Good $ & Sense.'' K & A Press, 1989. {{ISBN|0-924050-01-2}} p. 210</ref>

=== Social status, prosperity and the dollar ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
Hybrid Commons Chamber Rehearsal (D).jpg|The green benches in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom]]
United States one dollar bill, reverse.jpg|The reverse of the [[United States one-dollar bill]] has been green since 1861, giving it the popular name greenback.
</gallery>

Green in Europe and the United States is sometimes associated with status and prosperity. From the Middle Ages to the 19th century it was often worn by bankers, merchants country gentlemen and others who were wealthy but not members of the nobility. The benches in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom]], where the landed gentry sat, are colored green.

In the United States green was connected with the dollar bill. Since 1861, the reverse side of the dollar bill has been green. Green was originally chosen because it deterred counterfeiters, who tried to use early camera equipment to duplicate banknotes. Also, since the banknotes were thin, the green on the back did not show through and muddle the pictures on the front of the banknote. Green continues to be used because the public now associates it with a strong and stable currency.<ref>"Currency Notes" on the website of the U.S. [[Bureau of Engraving and Printing]], p. 12.</ref>

One of the more notable uses of this meaning is found in ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]''. The [[Emerald City]] in this story is a place where everyone wears tinted glasses that make everything appear green. According to the populist interpretation of the story, the city's color is used by the author, [[L. Frank Baum]], to illustrate the financial system of America in his day, as he lived in a time when America was debating the use of paper money versus gold.<ref>Carruthers, Bruce G.; Sarah Babb. "The Color of Money and the Nature of Value: Greenbacks and Gold in Postbellum America." ''The American Journal of Sociology.'' (May 1996) 101.6 pp. 1556–91</ref>