chartreuse

The word 'chartreuse' originates from the Latin 'Cartusia', the name for the Carthusian order's first monastery, Grande Chartreuse, in the French Alps. The name of the monastery was borrowed into French as 'Chartreuse'. In the 18th century, the Carthusian monks began producing a herbal liqueur which became famous by the name of its place of origin. By the late 19th century, the distinctive greenish-yellow hue of this liqueur was borrowed into English as the name for the color itself, completing the journey from a specific place name to a general color term.

This word is a loanword adopted as a single, unsegmentable unit from French. It is a toponym, derived from the name of the Carthusian monastic order (Chartreux in French) and their Grande Chartreuse monastery, famous for producing a distinctive greenish-yellow liqueur.