--- a/NEWS	Thu Feb 09 09:31:55 2017 -0800
+++ b/NEWS	Tue Feb 07 20:16:28 2017 +0100
@@ -60,6 +60,11 @@
     that it defined (DECLARE_OCTAVE_ALLOCATOR, DEFINE_OCTAVE_ALLOCATOR,
     and DEFINE_OCTAVE_ALLOCATOR2).
 
+ ** The rectangle and ellipse annotation property "edgecolor" has been
+    deprecated and will be removed from Octave 4.8 (or whatever version
+    is the second major release after 4.4).  Use the property "color"
+    instead.
+
 
 Summary of important user-visible changes for version 4.2:
 ---------------------------------------------------------

--- a/scripts/plot/appearance/annotation.m	Thu Feb 09 09:31:55 2017 -0800
+++ b/scripts/plot/appearance/annotation.m	Tue Feb 07 20:16:28 2017 +0100
@@ -480,10 +480,13 @@
 
       hr = patch (x, y, "parent", h);
 
+      ## FIXME: Remove warn state switching in Octave 4.8
+      old_warn_state = warning ("off", "Octave:deprecated-property");
       propnames = rectprops ("names");
       for ii = 1:numel (propnames)
         update_rect (h, {}, propnames{ii}, hr, objtype);
       endfor
+      warning (old_warn_state);
 
       rectmenu (hui, h);
       set (hr, "uicontextmenu", hui);
@@ -727,9 +730,9 @@
            "linestyle",  "linelinestyle", "-", ...
            "linewidth", "linelinewidth", 0.5, ...
            "string", "textstring", "", ...
-           "fitboxtotext", "radio","{on}|off", ...
+           "fitboxtotext", "radio", "{on}|off", ...
            "margin", "data", 5, ...
-           "verticalalignment", "textverticalalignment",  "middle"};
+           "verticalalignment", "textverticalalignment", "middle"};
   if (strcmp (varargin, "names"))
     props = props(1:3:end);
   endif
@@ -797,7 +800,9 @@
 
 function props = rectprops (varargin)
 
-  props = {"edgecolor", "patchedgecolor", "k", ...
+  ## FIXME: Remove "edgecolor" in Octave 4.8
+  props = {"color", "patchedgecolor", "k", ...
+           "edgecolor", "patchedgecolor", "k", ...
            "facealpha", "patchfacealpha", 1, ...
            "facecolor", "patchfacecolor", "none", ...
            "linestyle", "patchlinestyle", "-", ...
@@ -813,7 +818,7 @@
   prop = "facecolor";
   vals = basecolors ();
   addbasemenu (hui, hpar, prop, vals, "Face Color");
-  prop = "edgecolor";
+  prop = "color";
   vals = basecolors ();
   addbasemenu (hui, hpar, prop, vals, "Edge Color");
   prop = "linestyle";
@@ -1257,7 +1262,7 @@
 
 endfunction
 
-function update_rect (h, dummy, prop, hre, typ)
+function update_rect (h, ~, prop, hre, typ)
   persistent recursive = false;
 
   if (! recursive)
@@ -1269,10 +1274,22 @@
         else
           [x, y] = pos2ell (pos);
         endif
+        set (hre, "xdata", x, "ydata", y);
 
-        set (hre, "xdata", x, "ydata", y);
+      case "color"
+        set (hre, "edgecolor", get (h, prop));
+
+      case "edgecolor"
+        ## FIXME: Remove "edgecolor" in Octave 4.8
+        warning ("Octave:deprecated-property",
+                 ['annotation: Property "edgecolor" for ' typ ' annotations'...
+                  ' is deprecated and will be removed from a future version'...
+                  ' of Octave.  Use "color" instead.']);
+        set (hre, "edgecolor", get (h, prop));
+
       otherwise
         set (hre, prop, get (h, prop));
+
     endswitch
   endif
 
@@ -1494,6 +1511,29 @@
 %!   close (hf);
 %! end_unwind_protect
 
+## test rectangle properties
+%!test
+%! hf = figure ("visible", "off");
+%! hax = axes ();
+%! unwind_protect
+%!   h = annotation ("rectangle", [0.2 0.7 0.2 0.2], "linewidth", 2,
+%!                   "linestyle", "--", "color", "r", "facecolor", "b",
+%!                   "facealpha", .6, "units", "normalized");
+%!   hpa = get (h, "children");
+%!   assert (get (hpa, "xdata"), [0.2; 0.4; 0.4; 0.2], eps);
+%!   assert (get (hpa, "ydata"), [0.7; 0.7; 0.9; 0.9], eps);
+%!   assert (get (hpa, "linewidth"), 2);
+%!   assert (get (hpa, "linestyle"), "--");
+%!   assert (get (hpa, "edgecolor"), [1 0 0]);
+%!   assert (get (hpa, "edgecolor"), get (h, "color"));
+%!   assert (get (hpa, "facecolor"), [0 0 1]);
+%!   assert (get (hpa, "facealpha"), .6);
+%!  
+%!   assert (gca (), hax);
+%! unwind_protect_cleanup
+%!   close (hf);
+%! end_unwind_protect
+
 ## test units conversion
 %!test
 %! hf = figure ("visible", "off");