I prefer spelling it with an ‘e’ so I always do that (probably because my name has two common spellings, one with an A and the other with an E, and mine is the latter).
But if forced to identify which is which color-wise, I’d say “grey” has cool undertones while “gray” has warm undertones. Really no reason to think that, but it’s right in my brain.
Interesting! There is a linguistic phenomenon that synonyms differentiate their meanings because we tend to assume that different words have different meanings. This happens both on the individual and collective level. Funny that it even works for different spellings in your case! Maybe you encountered the one in a specific context and since than associate it
I think of grey as having a slight blue tinge, like grey skies
Versus gray is made of only (e.g.) black and white paint.
But I know there’s no reason for that distinction and ultimately they’re interchangeable.
Mostly I’m just curious how I got this idea of a slightly bluer grey and if anyone else has a similar mental association.
I prefer spelling it with an ‘e’ so I always do that (probably because my name has two common spellings, one with an A and the other with an E, and mine is the latter).
But if forced to identify which is which color-wise, I’d say “grey” has cool undertones while “gray” has warm undertones. Really no reason to think that, but it’s right in my brain.
Interesting! There is a linguistic phenomenon that synonyms differentiate their meanings because we tend to assume that different words have different meanings. This happens both on the individual and collective level. Funny that it even works for different spellings in your case! Maybe you encountered the one in a specific context and since than associate it