Turns or becomes yellow in color, often due to age, heat, or chemical processes.
From Old English 'geolu' or 'geolwe' (yellow), with Germanic roots shared with 'gold.' The verb form developed in Middle English as the color name became a verb meaning to take on that color.
Old paper turns yellow because the cellulose breaks down and releases compounds that absorb different colors of light—but we use the same word 'yellows' whether something bleaches or decays, which is poetic wordplay.
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