A friend of mine is learning Japanese and was reviewing colors with me when it hit me and I realized that most if not all colors that consist of 色 (nouns) have two pronunciations but I never hear the 音読み version of the two. It led me to wonder about if there are different usages for each pronunciation bc some (non-color) words are like that.
Ex. 灰色→はいいろ、かいしょく
赤色→あかいろ、せきしょく
黄色→きいろ、こうしょく、おうしょく
2 comments
As on’yomi are /usually/ associated with more technical jargon, it /might/ be used solely in some technical fields as opposed to daily use.
According to Jisho “sekishoku” is used to refer to communism/the political left.
In everyday conversation you’ll typically hear the kunyomi pronunciations. The onyomi is usually only used in compound words or more technical stuff, e.g. 白色矮星、赤色巨星.