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Calque of Chinese黃河 / 黄河(Huáng Hé), chiefly from the river's golden appearance as far west as Lanzhou caused by the enormous levels of silt it acquires from the Loess Plateau but also influenced by the color schema in wuxing ("Five Element") theory, which associates earth with the color 黃 / 黄(huáng), usually translated as "yellow" but also inclusive of shades modern English would consider golden, orange, brown, tan, etc. The earliest Chinese sources simply describe it as 河(hé, “The River”) but it was later distinguished as the Yellow River after 河(hé) began to replace 水(shuǐ) as a generic term for creeks and smaller rivers.
Firſt of all, There are in China two famous large Rivers, namely Kiang, and the Yellow River... The Yellow River, by ſtrangersſo called from the colour of the water, occaſioned by the Yellowneſs of the ground, is named Hoang in the Chineſe Language, and ſeems at firſt to be very Mooriſh; but the ſwiftneſs and great force of its running, makes it appear the quite contrary; for with ſo incredible a ſwiftneſs does this River run, that no Ships are able to Sail up againſt its Stream, but are drawn up againſt the ſame by the main ſtrength of a great number of Track-men: which may proceed from its being contracted within ſo narrow bounds; for in ſome places it is but half a mile broad, and in others a little broader, but in a continued courſe, for in length it extends above 800 miles.
1798, Complete View of the Chinese Empire, London, page 400:
After passing a short stage, through low lands with very different prospects, a succession of good towns and villages, numerous vessels, and crowds of people, indicated the vicinity of the Yellow River, into which the canal falls with a gentle force. November 2d, the yachts came to the spot where the canal joins the Yellow River. The Yellow River runs at this place with such rapidity that the Chinese sailors deemed it necessary to offer a sacrifice to its Guardian Spirit for a safe passage.
As we rode slowly over the Lunghai Line toward Sianfu, across the brown sun-baked plains of Northern Honan, soon to be flooded when the Chinese breached the Yellow River dikes to stop the advancing Yellow Horde, we passed many troop trains en-route to the front.
China's Yellow River, or Huang he, is named for the yellow, sandy silt it carries in its water. This silt, called loess, is almost as fine as flour. Over thousands of years, the northwestern wind blowing from the Gobi Desert has deposited hundreds of feet of loess over northern China. As the Yellow River flows through China, it sweeps away the fine, yellow silt and carries it downriver.
FOR MORE THAN 2,000 years, a branch of the Silk Road — the 600-mile-long Hexi Corridor — has angled southeast from the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts to the Yellow River loess plains.
2021 July 22, Pei Lin Wu, Rebecca Tan, “Death toll in China floods climbs to 33 as rains spread and more cities call for help”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-07-22, Asia:
Central China, where multiple tributaries of the Yellow River crisscross and monsoon rains are exceptionally heavy, has long been subject to flooding.
