- Chloe
- fem. proper name, Latin, from Greek Khloe, literally "young green shoot;" related to khloros "greenish-yellow," from PIE *ghlo- variant of root *ghel- (2) "to shine," with derivatives referring to bright materials and gold, and bile or gall (such as Latin helvus "yellowish, bay," Gallo-Latin gilvus "light bay;" Lithuanian geltonas "yellow;" Old Church Slavonic zlutu, Polish żółty, Russian zeltyj "yellow;" Sanskrit harih "yellow, tawny yellow," hiranyam "gold;" Avestan zari "yellow") and "green" (such as Latin galbus "greenish-yellow;" Greek khloros "greenish-yellow color," kholos "bile;" Lithuanian zalias "green," zelvas "greenish;" Old Church Slavonic zelenu, Polish zielony, Russian zelenyj "green;" Old Irish glass, Welsh and Breton glas "green," also "gray, blue").
Buck says the interchange of words for yellow and green is "perhaps because they were applied to vegetation like grass, cereals, etc., which changed from green to yellow." It is possible that this whole group of yellow-green words is related to PIE root *ghlei- "to shine, glitter, glow, be warm" (see gleam (n.)).
