The story
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱel-
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱélōs
- Proto-Italic*kelōs
- Old Latincolōs
- Latincolor
- Old Frenchcolor
- Anglo-Normancolur
- Middle Englishcolour
- English todaycolor
From Middle English colour, color, borrowed from Anglo-Norman colur, from Old French colour, color, from Latin color. Doublet of couleur. Largely displaced English blee, Middle English blee (“color”), from Old English blēo. Also partially replaced Old English hīew (“color”) and its descendants (English hue), which is less often used in this sense. The spelling color was popularized in modern American English by Noah Webster, to match the spelling of the word's Latin etymon, and make all American spellings of the derivatives consistent (colorimeter, coloration, colorize, colorless, etc).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.