fem. proper name, from Gk. Khloe, lit. "young green shoot;" related to khloros "greenish-yellow," from PIE *ghlo- var. of base *ghel-, a color word that has yielded words for both "yellow" (cf. L. helvus "yellowish, bay," Gallo-L. gilvus "light bay;" Lith. geltonas "yellow;" O.C.S. zlutu, Pol. zolty, Rus. zeltyj "yellow;" Skt. harih "yellow, tawny yellow," hiranyam "gold;" Avestan zari "yellow;" O.E. geolu, geolwe, Mod. Eng. yellow, Ger. gelb "yellow") and "green" (cf. L. galbus "greenish-yellow;" Gk. khloros "greenish-yellow color," kholos "bile;" Lith. zalias "green," zelvas "greenish;" O.C.S. zelenu, Pol. zielony, Rus. zelenyj "green;" O.Ir. glass, Welsh, Breton glas "green," also "grey, blue"). Buck says the interchange of words for yellow and green is "perhaps because they were applied to vegetation like grass, cereals, etc., which changed from green to yellow." It is possible that this whole group ofyellow-green words is related to PIE base *ghlei- "to shine, glitter, glow, be warm" (see gleam).