Red Red English!

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One of the three primary colors, Red symbolises power as well as passion, anger, shame, aggression, violence, danger and bloodshed. The color is also used in advertising to denote erotic feelings. And since it is a simulating color, its mere presence increases heartbeats.

A well-known fact is the use of red cloths by Spanish bullfighters to incite bulls, although what is interesting is that bulls are color-blind and would therefore react to a cloth of any color. In fact it is the movements of the bullfighter and the cloth that incites the bull to attack and not the color. Probably the cloth is red not for the bull but for the bullfighter, or more appropriately for the audience, in case the bullfighter starts bleeding after being injured by the bull.

Below are a few expressions derived from ‘red’.

Sayings & Expressions:

Blood red - anything that has the deep-red color of blood.
The expression is a literal observation of the color of an object; thus anything that has a color similar to that of blood is ‘blood red’ in color.

Catch red-handed - catch in the act of committing a crime or doing wrong.
Red-handed is an adaptation of an earlier Scottish expression 'redhand' and 'with red hand', both of which are now no longer in use. The expression is based on the idea of a murderer being caught even before he has been able to wash off the victim's blood (off his hands). Although it is unlikely that there is one single origin, it is probable that the expression predates guns, as in those days, killings would be done with weapons like knives or clubs.

In the red - in debt
In the pre-computer days, customers who had overdrawn their accounts had the relevant figures on their bank statements marked in red.

Paint the town red - enjoy oneself flamboyantly
Although the exact origin is not known, the most likely account seems to be over 150 years old and is based on the vandalism of Leicestershire by Marquis of Waterford and several of his friends, who in their heavily inebriated state, went around painting parts of the town red.
Although what happened to them as a result of this incident is not certain, what is certain is that it created enough of an uproar to forever immortalise the incident as an expression.

Red-letter day - a memorable day or a day of celebration
By the 15th century it was common to mark important days, like saints’ days, in red, while all the other dates were in black, a custom that is being followed till date. These were the days of celebrations & dancing & feasts and soon people began to refer to days that had special significance to them as ’red-letter days’.

Red herring - misleading or distracting
The expression first came into existence as 'draw a red herring across the trail', which meant ‘introduce some irrelevance’. A red herring is a herring that has been smoked and has therefore become reddish-brown. Since it has a very strong odor, it was used to lay scents for bloodhounds to follow when being trained. But if during an actual foxhunt, a hound came across the scent of a red herring (laid down previously for the purpose of training), it would get mislead, loose track of the fox and start following the scent of the red herring.

Red rag – something that infuriates or excites a person’s rage
The expression is based on the red cloth or rag used by bullfighters to enrage the bulls and incite them to attack. Thus anything that angers a person is a ’red rag’.

Red tape - excessive bureaucracy and procedures that create unnecessary delays and difficulties.
Government officials used red-colored tape to tie up bundles of documents in most government departments, but since most of the civil service was and is known for its excessive formalities and underhand dealings, ’red tape’ became synonymous with it in terms of the problems, hindrances and subsequent frustrations encountered by the common man in trying to negotiate the labyrinth laid down by the officialdom.

See red - become very angry or loose control
This expression too is in all probability derived from bull-fighting and is from the bull’s perspective, where seeing a red cloth angers the bull, making it loose control over itself.

As for the difference between red light and red-light, ’red light’ is signal to stop on roads, railways etc or a warning light, while red-light is an adjective for a location where many prostitutes work, as in a red-light area or a red-light district.