# Day 119 Magenta or Fushia - etymological explanations for the colour!

"Magenta is the name of a town in northwestern Italy. In 1859, during the Second Italian War of Independence, French and Italian forces defeated the Austrians at Magenta. It was a particularly gory clash—so bloody that more than seven thousand men died were buried in one mass grave. Shortly afterward, a new type of purplish-pink dye, made from coal tar, was discovered. The color, originally called fuchsine (or fuchsia) after the dye used to create it, was soon renamed magenta. While some suspected it was called magenta after the red-colored uniforms worn by the French troops, according to Philip Ball, Bright Earth, Art and the Invention of Colour it was renamed to celebrate the victory of the French army at the Battle of Magenta on June 4, 1859, near the Italian city of that name."