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"What are ya, yellow?" Well, that depends, because the color can symbolize many things. Fortunately, most of them are positive. For instance, a yellow rose is a sign of friendship, and a yellow ribbon during wartime signifies hope and loyalty. However, as fans of Western films are no doubt aware, the color can also mean cowardice. This site on figures of speech has a theory on the metaphor's origin. The site says it has nothing to do with a person's perceived color. Rather, it's a nod to the legendary yellowbelly lizard, a reptile
apparently not known for its intestinal fortitude (aka "guts"). The story goes that when confronted, the yellowbelly lizard "exits on its belly as soon as possible." Sounds reasonable, but the Straight Dope believes the expression began as a medical term. Way back when, the human body was thought to have four distinct fluids -- blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. According to medieval medicine, yellow bile "made you peevish, choleric, irascible." Interestingly, not all cultures equate yellow with cowardice. In Japan, the color actually signifies courage, and in China, yellow was once an official
symbol of the emperor.
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