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Is "Isabel" actually a colour?
(Chandrasekhar, Hyderabad)
I understand that "brownish yellow" is often referred to as "isabel". There is an interesting story behind this and in order to tell it, I have to let some dirty linen remain unwashed! According to the story, Isabella was the daughter of King Philip II of Spain. In 1598, she was married off to Prince Albert of Austria, and as dowry the young couple was given the whole of the Netherlands. Unfortunately, one of the cities, Ostend was in the hands of the Flemish. Isabella apparently told her husband that until he captured this city, she would not remove her underwear even to wash it! The husband of course panicked and set off to Ostend to capture it. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it took nearly three years for the city to fall! So if the story is to be believed, poor Isabella was wearing the same unwashed underwear for three years! Now do you understand why "isabel" means "brownish yellow"? I guess the story explains two things. One, why Isabella and Albert never had children, and two, why Hamlet kept saying that something was rotten in the state of Denmark! The smell probably carried all the way from the Netherlands! Just kidding!
S. Upendran
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