“sallow” complexion?
In Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, in several places he describes people having a “sallow complexion”.
While I’m not native
English,
and from the context I can’t decide whether he means pale
Caucasian or rather an Asian. According to Collins dictionary: Sallow (esp of human skin) of an unhealthy pale or yellowish colour Unfortunately I’m not a native English speaker, and from the context I can’t decide whether he means a very pale Caucasian or rather an Asian.
No, it really matters for the understanding of the story, but at first sight I thought it was a misspelling of shallow and this aroused my curiosity, now I have to find out.
A sallow complexion means a yellowish complexion. It also applies to dark complexions like those of a mulatto, a gypsy, and other so designated olive and Mediterranean complexions. I suspect it also applies to the brownish-greenish complexioned Europeans who are usually depicted in Russian and Orthodox paintings of kings, biblical personalities and saints.
Yes, I know that there was a film and played a mixed race character in King Arthur. I just watched my 10th birthday, though I didn’t even think about my black and brown skinned Irish parents. Some of those thespians know better than others.
Because yellow skin is one of the features of jaundice the word became associated with illness and unhealthy looking skin even if the person was not ill or had jaundice.
Which quotes from the online Merriam Webster dictionary is related?
There is no hint of not being sick in the etymology of sallow. In Old French the word salu is literally “pure” or “dramatic” or “gray yellowish green. If the word “salu” means “dark, dirty”, then it’s akin to Old German su00f6lr (for black), Old Norse su00f6lr (for black), or sra itself (for grey). Sallow marks the skin or skin tone which is unwell. Sallow refers to any odour given to the feeling of being sick.
My
own suspicion is that sallow
complexions in the yellowish-greenish sense were in derivation from people of the paintings described above with white people, which is
probably why many European royals were called sallow. Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and her mother Anne Boleyn are described as being sallow skinned.
The effigies of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II at Fontevraud Abbey, France
Henry’s complexion is what is described as being particularly sallow. Eleanor’s skin would be ruddy. Sophie Okonedo’s portrayal of Margaret of Anjou doesn’t really go far.
The word sallow probably referred to people who in current times would be classified as black and carried over the terms their light-skinned descendants also as the word black is used to label people showing visible signs of black African ancestry even when they are quite light-skinned such as Meghan Markle.
Paintings of sallow-complexioned people are generally assumed to be those of pink-skinned white people in which have darkened or deteriorated over time and need to be restored.
Celebrities of the world with a sallow cast are the Viktor Orban (Victoria), Maria Vladimirovna e.V: Maria Sharapova, Maria mirova, Visvejo Iveska (Marianne), Maria Arban (Victoria), Maria Leykovic (Viktor), Maria Hasik (Rosa), Maria Steva, Maria
Balahok (Victoria) are some examples.
Given the author and the era in which he wrote, you should interpret this as meaning “pale Caucasian”.
