Did you know that the earliest humans didn’t even have words for colors? In the latest episode of Otherwords, Dr. Erica Brozovsky explores how color names evolved over time and why nearly every culture developed them in the same order.

Black and white came first, representing light and darkness. Red followed, tied to survival through food and danger. Yellow and green came next, then blue—surprisingly late, since it’s rare in nature outside the sky. Orange didn’t even get its own name until the fruit arrived in Europe!

From ancient dyes to modern marketing, our palette of color names has exploded, but it all started with a much simpler view of the world. Watch the full episode to see how language shaped the way we see color!