How do you say the color "maroon" in French?

Question

I have a student who wants to know how to say the color "maroon". The hex color code #800000 gives "Maroon" as the answer on the encycolorpedia.fr site, but that's the only place I see it listed. Most "first choices" on translators give "marron" as the translation -- but how do you tell the difference between marron/maroon and marron/brown? Some give bordeaux or grenat as options -- and those are "related" colors on the encycolorpedia.fr site as well. Thank you for your help with this vexing dilemma. I hope the next student chooses something "easy" like navy blue!! :)

Accepted Answer

Hi Bonnie, 
Both adjectives,  grenat, and bordeaux are correct for the colour maroon which is the colour of wine.
( grenat is also the name for the garnet gem)
The colour 'bordeaux' can be translated as 'burgundy' which always makes me smile as of course to a French person it is a totally different wine region!
You might find this page interesting I think -
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenat_(couleur)#:~:text=Le%20rouge%20grenat%20est%20commun%C3%A9ment,pour%20la%20production%20de%20pigments.
Marron is a nutshell is brown unless you are talking about hair or fur and you then choose 'brun'!
Bonne Continuation!

Answer

According to Larousse (and wordreference) the French word for the colour 'maroon' is «bordeaux». None of Robert, Larousse or the Académie francaise include «maroon» as a French word.

Answer

Merci beaucoup, Maarten. I am still very confused as to all the statements I've seen with "marron" rather than "bordeaux" for the translation. Maybe Québecois?

Answer

Words are very imprecise desciptors of colours at the best of times! Marron to me is definitely brown. Maybe it is just a misuse that has arisen because of the closeness of the spelling - words have changed meaning with a lot less reasoning than this.