Abstract: The Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, despite the changes that he has undergone, has remained a dictionary of usage and, if terms are found in it, it is because they have become frequent in the common language. We present the evolution of the presence of colour terms in its successive editions. By examining the nature of the presence of the terms in the Dictionnaire de l’Académie française and the changes that have occurred from one edition to the next, our work is also part of a theoretical debate on the role of common language dictionaries in the transmission of knowledge to the general public.
