The color or name comes from the French word cerise, meaning "cherry".
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of cerise as a color name in English was in The Times of November 30, 1858.[2] This date of 1858 as the date of first use of the color name is also mentioned in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color.[3] However, it was used at least as early as 1845 in a book of crochet patterns.[4]
In the 1950s, a popular brand of colored pencils, Venus Paradise, had a colored pencil called Hollywood cerise which was this color. Before being renamed Hollywood cerise in the 1940s, the color had been known, since its inception in 1922, simply as Hollywood.[7]
The color name irresistible first came into use in the Plochere Color System, a color system formulated in 1948 that is widely used by interior designers.[8]
^The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called cerise in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color cerise is displayed on Page 31, Plate 4, Color Sample J6.
^The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called Hollywood in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color Hollywood is displayed on page 33, Plate 5, Color Sample K5.
^This color matches the color called Hollywood Cerise in the Venus Paradise colored pencil set, widely sold during the 1950s.
^Maerz and Paul, A Dictionary of Color New York:1930--McGraw-Hill See Hollywood in Index, Page 196 and Color Sample of Hollywood, Page 33, Plate 5, Color Sample K5
