Cardinal is a vivid red, which may get its name from the cassocks worn by Catholiccardinals (although the color worn by cardinals is scarlet). The cardinal bird also takes its name from the cardinal bishops.
Cardinal bird (male)The cardinal color takes its name from the color of the robes worn by cardinals.
The first recorded use of cardinal as a color name in English was in the year 1698.[2]
The corresponding Pantone Matching System (PMS) color is 200, as seen in the school colors for Wisconsin, Arizona and Wesleyan, and as one of the two official colors of the Phi Kappa Psi and Alpha Sigma Phi fraternities and the only official color of the sorority Alpha Omicron Pi. However, Stanford's variant of the color is 201 C,[3] while Carnegie Mellon and Worcester Polytechnic Institute use PMS 187, Brown University uses PMS 192, Iowa State University uses PMS 186, and Ball State University uses PMS 199.
A brighter version of Cardinal is the official color of Stanford University (although the athletic teams' official colors are cardinal and white, the university's athletic teams are called the Cardinal).
Cardinal and grey are the official colors of La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. It is reflective of the tinctures gules and argent in its coat of arms.
Cardinal is the official college color of University College, Durham - a college of Durham University in the United Kingdom - and is usually worn as the primary color of the college's many sports teams and societies, such as the football team, the hockey team and the boat club.
Cardinal and gold are the official colors of Iowa State University, located in Ames, Iowa. The school's mascot, Cy, was chosen based on the school's main color, cardinal, since a cyclone mascot would have been difficult to design. A number of other universities use it as well.
Cardinal and white are the official colors of the University of ArkansasRazorbacks. Prior to adoption of the Razorback as the mascot, the university's sports teams were known as the Cardinals.
Cardinal and black are the official colors of Wesleyan University, and the school's athletic teams are called the Cardinals.
The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called cardinal in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color cardinal is displayed on page 33, Plate 5, Color Sample L5.