Apply font lock to quoted symbols in elisp

Question

In Emacs I would like quoted symbols in emacs lisp such as: `'blah` and display them in a different color. How can I use `font-lock` mode to do this?

Accepted Answer

Try:

```
(font-lock-add-keywords 'emacs-lisp-mode
                        '(("'[-a-zA-Z_][-a-zA-Z0-9_]*\>" 0 'font-lock-constant-face)))
```

Or (if you don't want the quote colored):

```
(font-lock-add-keywords 'emacs-lisp-mode
                        '(("'$[-a-zA-Z_][-a-zA-Z0-9_]*$\>" 1 'font-lock-constant-face)))
```

This will not color things in comments or strings, as they are colored in earlier, and font-lock (by default) doesn't re-color things.

Solution