See main article: Basic color terms.
In many languages, the colors described in English as "blue" and "green" are colexified, i.e., expressed using a single umbrella term. To render this ambiguous notion in English, linguists use the blend word grue, from green and blue,[1] a term coined by the philosopher Nelson Goodmanwith an unrelated meaningin his 1955 Fact, Fiction, and Forecast to illustrate his "new riddle of induction".
The exact definition of "blue" and "green" may be complicated by the speakers not primarily distinguishing the hue, but using terms that describe other color components such as saturation and luminosity, or other properties of the object being described. For example, "blue" and "green" might be distinguished, but a single term might be used for both if the color is dark. Furthermore, green might be associated with yellow, and blue with either black or gray.
According to Brent Berlin and Paul Kay's 1969 study , distinct terms for brown, purple, pink, orange, and gray will not emerge in a language until the language has made a distinction between green and blue. In their account of the development of color terms the first terms to emerge are those for white/black (or light/dark), red and green/yellow.[2]
The word for blue in the Amazigh (Berber) language is Berber languages: azerwal. In some dialects of Amazigh, like Shilha or Kabyle, the word Berber languages: azegzaw is used for both green and blue. It is likely cognate with the English word azure, which represents the colour between blue and cyan.
The color of the sky is sometimes referred to as "the green" in some dialects of Classical Arabic poetry, in which it is (Arabic: الخضراء). In Arabic the word for blue is (Arabic: أزرق). The Arabic word for green is (Arabic: أخضر).
In Moroccan Arabic, the word for light blue is, whereas (زرق) stands for blue and (خضر) for green. The word (زرڭ) is used to describe the color of a suffocated person, and is also used pejoratively as a synonym to "dumb, stupid".
The ancient Egyptian word wadjet covered the range of blue, blue-green, and green. It was the name of a goddess, the patroness of Lower Egypt, represented as a cobra called Wadjet, "the green one", or as the Eye of Horus, also called by the same name. At the same time, wedjet was the word used for Egyptian blue in faience ceramics.
In Hebrew, the word Hebrew: כחול (pronounced pronounced as //kaˈχol//) means blue, while Hebrew: ירוק (pronounced pronounced as //jaˈʁok//) means green and has the same root, Hebrew: י־ר־ק (j-r-q), as the word for "vegetables" (Hebrew: ירקות, pronounced as /jeʁaˈkot/). However, in classical Hebrew, Hebrew: ירוק can mean both green and yellow, giving rise to such expressions as Hebrew: ירוק כרישה "leek green" (Tiberian Hebrew pronounced as //jɔːˈroːq kəriː'ʃɔː//) to specify green to the exclusion of yellow. Like Russian and Italian, Hebrew has a separate name for light blue (Hebrew: תכלת,)—the color of the sky and of tzitzit on the tallit, a ritual garment. This color has special symbolic significance in both Judaism and Jewish culture.[3]
The Choctaw language has two words, Choctaw: okchʋko and Choctaw: okchʋmali, which have different meanings depending on the source. In 1852 Choctaw: okchakko is translated variously as pale blue or pale green, Choctaw: okchakko chohmi is given as swarthy, and Choctaw: okchamali is defined as deep blue, gray, green, or sky blue.[4] In 1880 Choctaw: okchakko and Choctaw: okchʋmali are both given as blue, and green is not specifically listed as a color.[5] In an 1892 dictionary, Choctaw: okchamali is deep blue or green, Choctaw: okchakko is pale blue or bright green, and a third word Choctaw: kili̱koba is bright green (resembling a Choctaw: kili̱kki, a species of parrot).[6] By 1915, the authoritative Byington dictionary gives Choctaw: okchako as blue and Choctaw: okchamali as green, blue, gray, verdant.[7] A coursebook from 2001 differentiates based on brightness, giving Choctaw: okchʋko as bright blue/green and Choctaw: okchʋmali as pale or dull blue/green.[8] Modern usage in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma language school is to use Choctaw: okchʋko for blue and Choctaw: okchʋmali for green, with no distinction for brightness.
The language of the Kanien'kehá:ka Nation at Akwesasne is at Stage VII on the Berlin–Kay Scale, and possesses distinct terms for a broad range of spectral and nonspectral colors such as Mohawk: oruía, Mohawk: óhute, Mohawk: kahúji, Mohawk: karákA, and Mohawk: atakArókwa . According to one researcher, the Kanien'kehá:ka term for purple Mohawk: arihwawakunéha, which translates to, a recent, post-Christianization coinage.[9] The way in which purple was categorized and referenced prior to the addition of the latter term is not clear.
In the Lakota language, the word tȟó is used for both blue and green, though the word tȟózi (a mixture of the words tȟó, and zí) has become common (zítȟo can also be used). This is in line with common practice of using zíša/šázi for orange (šá meaning), and šátȟo/tȟóša for .[10]
Mapudungun, spoken by indigenous peoples of Chile and Argentina, distinguishes between Mapudungun; Mapuche: kurü, Mapudungun; Mapuche: kallfü and Mapudungun; Mapuche: karü . The word Mapudungun; Mapuche: payne was formerly used to refer to a sky blue, and also refers to the bluish color of stones.[11]
Single words for blue/green are also found in Mayan languages; for example, in the Yucatec Maya language, yax is .
Tupian languages did not originally differ between the two colors, though they may now as a result of interference of Spanish (in the case of Guaraní) or Portuguese (in the case of Nheengatu). The Tupi word oby pronounced as //ɔˈβɨ// meant both, as does the Guaraní Guarani: hovy pronounced as //hɔʋɨ//. In modern Tupi (Nheengatu) the word suikiri can be used for green and iakira/akira for blue. However, iakira/akira also means immature, as in pakua akira, and suikiri can also mean blue. In modern Guarani, the word Guarani: hovy is used for blue and Guarani: hovy'û (which literally means "dark green/blue") is used for green. The word Guarani: aky, which is cognate with Nheengatu akira, also means .
The Yebamasa of the Rio Piraparana region in Vaupés Department, southeastern Colombia, use the term sumese for both blue and green in the Barasana-Eduria language. The letter "u" is pronounced like the German "ü".[12]
Speakers of Tagalog most commonly use the Spanish loanwords for blue and green—Tagalog: asul (from Spanish Spanish; Castilian: azul) and Tagalog: berde (from Spanish Tagalog: verde), respectively. Although these words are much more common in spoken use, Tagalog has native terms: Tagalog: bugháw for blue and Tagalog: lunti(án) for green, which are seen as archaic and more flowery. These are mostly confined to formal and academic writings, alongside artistic fields such literature, music, and poetry.
In Cebuano, another major Philippine language, the native words for "blue" and "green" end in the same syllable: Cebuano: pughaw and Cebuano: lunhaw, respectively. Cebuano: Pughaw means sky blue, while Cebuano: lunhaw is fresh leaf green (i.e., neither brownish nor yellowish).
Humor and jokes of a sexual or derogatory nature that would otherwise be described as "blue" in English (e.g., "blue comedy", "blue joke") are called "green" in Philippine English. This is a calque of the Hispanic term Spanish; Castilian: chiste verde.
Modern Javanese has distinct words for blue Javanese: biru and green Javanese: ijo.[13] These words are derived from Old Javanese Kawi: birū and Kawi: hijo.[14] However, in Old Javanese Kawi: birū could mean pale blue, grayish blue, greenish blue, or even turquoise, while Kawi: hijo which means green, could also mean the blue-green color of clear water. Kawi: Biru and Kawi: ijo in Modern Javanese are cognates of Malay/Indonesian Malay: biru and Malay: hijau which both have the same meaning.
The Kannada language distinguishes between blue (Kannada: ನೀಲಿ), green (Kannada: ಹಸಿರು) and yellow (Kannada: ಹಳದಿ). The prefix (Kannada: ಕಡು-) would indicate darker colors while the prefix (Kannada: ತಿಳಿ-) would indicate light colors. Thus (Kannada: ಕಡುನೀಲಿ) would mean dark/deep blue, while (Kannada: ತಿಳಿನೀಲಿ) would mean light blue.
The Tamil language distinguishes between the colors Tamil: பச்சை, Tamil: நீலம், and Tamil: கருப்பு . The prefix would indicate dark colors while the suffix would indicate light colors. Thus, Tamil: கரும்பச்சை would be dark green.
The Telugu language uses a single word, Telugu: పచ్చ, for green and yellow. To differentiate between the two shades, another word is prefixed in some cases. For example, green will be called Telugu: ఆకుపచ్చ and yellow Telugu: పసుపుపచ్చ .
In Malayalam there are distinct words for blue (Malayalam: നീല), green (Malayalam: പച്ച) and yellow (Malayalam: മഞ്ഞ).
The modern Chinese language has the blue–green distinction (藍 for blue and 綠 for green); however, another word that predates the modern vernacular, (Chinese: {{linktext|青), is also used in many contexts. The character depicts the budding of a young plant and it could be understood as "verdant", but the word is used to describe colors ranging from light and yellowish green through deep blue all the way to black, as in For example, the flag of the Republic of China is referred to as (Chinese: 青天，白日，滿地紅,) whereas is the Chinese word for "green vegetable", referring to bok choy, and the opposing sides of the game liubo were known as and white in antiquity[15] despite using black and white pieces. was the traditional designation of both blue and green for much of the history of the Chinese language, while originally referred to the dye of the indigo plant.[16] However, as a particular 'shade' of applied to cloth and clothing[17] has been attested since the Book of Odes (1000600BC), as in the title of Ode 27 "Green Upper Garment") in the Airs of Bei section. After the discarding of Classical Chinese in favor of modern vernacular Chinese, the modern terms for blue and green are now more commonly used than as standalone color terms, although is still part of many common noun phrases. The two forms can also be encountered combined as Chinese: 青藍 and Chinese: 青綠, with being used as an intensifier. In modern scientific contexts, refers to cyan as distinguished from both blue and green.
| Japanese: 萌黄, listed with yellow | |
| Japanese: 若竹色, listed with blue |
The native Korean word Korean: 푸르다 may mean either blue or green, or bluish green. These adjectives Korean: 푸르다 are used for blue as in Korean: 푸른 하늘, or for green as in Korean: 푸른 숲 . Korean: 푸른 is a noun-modifying form. Another word Korean: 파랗다 usually means blue, but sometimes it also means green, as in . There are Sino-Korean expressions that refer to green and blue. Korean: 초록/Korean: 草綠 (adj./n.), Korean: 초록색/Korean: 草綠色 (n. or for short, Korean: 녹색/Korean: 綠色 n.) is used for green. Korean: 청/Korean: 靑, another expression borrowed from Chinese (Chinese: 靑), is mostly used for blue, as in Korean: 청바지/Korean: 靑-- and (Korean: 청와대/Korean: [[wikt:靑|靑]]瓦臺), the Blue House, which is the former executive office and official residence of the President of the Republic of Korea, but is also used for green as well, as in Korean: 청과물/Korean: 靑果物 and Korean: 청포도/Korean: 靑葡萄 .
In Tibetan, སྔོན་པོ། (Wylie) is the term traditionally given for the color of the sky and of grass.[19] This term also falls into the general pattern of naming colors by appending the suffix, as in,,, and . Conspicuously, the term for is, likely related to, and defined as—"the grue (sngon po) sprout of wheat or barley".[20]
Vietnamese used to colexify green and blue with the word Vietnamese: xanh. This is a colloquial rendering of Vietnamese: thanh Vietnamese: 靑, as with Chinese and Japanese. In modern usage, blue and green are dislexified. Shades of blue are specifically described as Vietnamese: xanh da trời, or Vietnamese: xanh dương, xanh nước biển, . Green is described as Vietnamese: xanh lá cây .
Vietnamese occasionally employs the terms Vietnamese: xanh lam and Vietnamese: xanh lục in which the second syllables is derived from the Chinese: Chinese: [[wikt:藍|藍]] and Chinese: [[wikt:綠|綠]] respectively, sometimes skipping the syllable Vietnamese: xanh, for blue and green, respectively, in formal or scientific speech. Vietnamese: Xanh can also be used singularly for any color that is the shade in between blue and green inclusively.
Modern Mongolian makes a distinction between green (Mongolian: ногоон,) and blue, which is divided into distinct colors covering light blue (Mongolian: цэнхэр,) and dark blue (Mongolian: хөх,). Historically, however, the blue distinction was made with the color inclusive of greens such as fresh grass.[21] then became a more common term in the modern era.
Albanian has two major words for "blue": Albanian: kaltër refers to a light blue, such as that of the sky, but it is derived from Vulgar Latin Latin: calthinus, itself derived from Latin: caltha, a loan from Ancient Greek that meant "marigold" a small and in fact yellow flower.[22] [23] The other word, Albanian: blu, refers to a darker shade of blue, and like many similar words across many European languages, derives ultimately from Germanic (see also: Italian Italian: blu). There is a separate word for green, Albanian: gjelbër, which derives from the Latin Latin: galbinus, which originally meant "yellow" (cf. German German: gelb); the original Latin word for green on the other hand, Latin: viridis is the source of the Albanian word for "yellow", Albanian: verdhë.[24] Albanian also has a borrowed word for green, Albanian: jeshil, from Turkish Turkish: yeşil; it tends to be used for non-natural greens (such as traffic signals) in contrast to Albanian: gjelbër.
Latvian has separate words for green Latvian: zaļš and blue Latvian: zils. Both Latvian: zils and Latvian: zaļš stem from the same Proto-Indo-European word for yellow (Indo-European languages: *ghel). Several other words in Latvian have been derived from these colors, namely grass is called Latvian: zāle (from Latvian: zaļš), while the name for iris is Latvian: zīlīte (from Latvian: zils).
The now archaic word Latvian: mēļš was used to describe both dark blue and black (probably indicating that previously Latvian: zils was used only for lighter shades of blue). For instance, blueberries are called Latvian: mellenes.
In Latvian black is Latvian: melns (in some local dialects Latvian: mells).
In Lithuanian Lithuanian: žalias is green, Lithuanian: mėlynas is blue, and Lithuanian: žilas is gray (hair) or grizzled.
Bulgarian, a South Slavic language, makes a clear distinction between blue (Bulgarian: синьо,), green (Bulgarian: зелено,), and black (Bulgarian: черно,).
In the Polish language, blue (Polish: niebieski, from Polish: niebo) and green (Polish: zielony) are treated as separate colors. The word for sky blue or azure—Polish: błękitny—might be considered either a basic color or a shade of blue by different speakers. Similarly dark blue or navy blue (Polish: granatowy—deriving from the name of pomegranate (Polish: granat), some cultivars of which are dark purplish blue in color) can be considered by some speakers as a separate basic color. Black (Polish: czarny) is completely distinguished from blue. As in English, Polish distinguishes pink (Polish: różowy) from red (Polish: czerwony).
The word Polish: siwy means blue-gray in Polish (literally: "color of gray hair"). The word Polish: siny refers to violet-blue and is used to describe the color of bruises (Polish: siniaki), hematoma, and the blue skin discoloration that can result from moderate hypothermia.
Russian does not have a single word referring to the whole range of colors denoted by the English term "blue". Instead, it traditionally treats light blue (Russian: голубой,) as a separate color independent from plain or dark blue (Russian: синий,), with all seven "basic" colors of the spectrum (red–orange–yellow–green–Russian: [[wikt:голубой#Russian|голубой]]/ (sky blue, light azure, but does not equal cyan)–Russian: [[wikt:синий#Russian|синий]]/ ("true" deep blue, like synthetic ultramarine)–violet) while in English the light blues like azure and cyan are considered mere shades of "blue" and not different colors. The Russian word for "green" is Russian: [[wikt:зелёный#Russian|зелёный]] . To better understand this, consider that English makes a similar distinction between "red" and light red (pink, which is considered a different color and not merely a kind of red), but such a distinction is unknown in several other languages; for example, both "red" (Chinese: 紅, traditionally called Chinese: 赤), and "pink" (Chinese: 粉紅, lit. "powder red") have traditionally been considered varieties of a single color in Chinese. The Russian language also distinguishes between red (Russian: красный) and pink (Russian: розовый).
Similarly, English language descriptions of rainbows have often distinguished between blue or turquoise[25] and indigo,[26] the latter of which is often described as dark blue or ultramarine.[27]
The Serbo-Croatian color system makes a distinction between blue, green and black:
Modra may also mean dark blue and dark purple that are used to describe colours of a bruise, modrica. Native speakers cannot pinpoint a color on the spectrum which would correspond to modra.
Sinje, cognate to Bulgarian Bulgarian: синьо and Russian Russian: синий, is archaic, and denotes blue-gray, usually used to describe dark seas.
Turquoise is usually described as tirkizna, and similarly, azure will use a loan word azurna. There is no specific word for cyan. Blond hair is called plava, reflecting likely the archaic use of plav for any bright white/blue colors (like the sky).
Mrko can refer either dark brown, less often dark gray, or even black. It is etymologically derived from the word for (mrak), but is distinct from (tamna). For instance, it is used to describe the brown bear (mrki medved/medvjed). Smeđe and kestenjasto refer to brown, crveno means red, ružičasto is for pink and narančasto designates orange.
Shades are defined with a prefix (e.g., tamno- for dark, or svetlo-/svijetlo- for light), for example, dark blue is tamnoplavo.
The Slovene language distinguishes among blue, green and black
Although the blue and green color are not strictly defined, so Slovene speakers cannot point to a certain shade of blue or green, but rather the whole spectrum of blue and green shades, there is a distinction between light and dark hues of these colors, which is described with prefixes Slovenian: svetlo- (light) and Slovenian: temno- (dark).
Transient hues between blue and green are mostly described as Slovenian: zeleno moder or Slovenian: modro zelen, sometimes as Slovenian: turkizen (turquoise). Transient hues between green and yellow (Slovenian: rumena) are described as Slovenian: rumeno zelen or Slovenian: zeleno rumen.
The Welsh, Cornish, and Breton word Welsh: glas is usually translated as 'blue'; however, it can also refer, variously, to the color of the sea, of grass, or of silver (cf. Ancient Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γλαυκός). The word Welsh: gwyrdd (a borrowing from Latin Latin: viridis) is the standard translation for 'green'. In traditional Welsh (and related languages), Welsh: glas could refer to certain shades of green and gray as well as blue, and Welsh: llwyd could refer to various shades of gray and brown. Perhaps under the influence of English, Modern Welsh is trending toward the 11-color Western scheme, restricting Welsh: glas to 'blue' and using Welsh: gwyrdd for 'green', Welsh: llwyd for 'gray' and Welsh: brown for 'brown', respectively. However, the more traditional usage is still heard today in the Welsh word for 'grass' (Welsh: glaswellt or Welsh: gwelltglas), and in fossilized expressions such as Welsh: caseg las 'gray mare', Welsh: tir glas 'green land', Welsh: papur llwyd 'brown paper' and even red for 'brown' in Welsh: siwgwr coch 'brown sugar'.
In Modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic the word for 'blue' is gorm (whence the name Cairngorm mountains derives) – a borrowing from the now obsolete Early Welsh word Welsh: gwrm 'dark blue, dusky'. A relic of the original meaning 'dusky, dark brown' survives in the Irish term Irish: daoine gorma 'Black people'.
In Old and Middle Irish, like in Welsh, Irish, Old (to 900);: glas was a blanket term for colors ranging from green to blue to various shades of gray (e.g., the Irish, Old (to 900);: glas of a sword, the Irish, Old (to 900);: glas of stone). In Modern Irish, it has come to mean both various shades of green, with specific reference to plant hues, and gray (like the sea), respectively; other shades of green would be referred to in Modern Irish as Irish: uaine or Irish: uaithne, while Irish: liath is gray proper (like a stone).
Scottish Gaelic uses the term Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: uaine for 'green'. However, the dividing line between it and Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: gorm is somewhat different than between the English "green" and "blue", with Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: uaine signifying a light green or yellow-green, and Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: gorm extending from dark blue (what in English might be navy blue) to include the dark green or blue-green of vegetation. Grass, for instance, is Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: gorm, rather than Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: uaine. In addition, Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: liath covers a range from light blue to light gray. However, the term for a green apple, such as a Granny Smith, would be Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: ubhal glas.
The boundary between colors varies much more than the "focal point": e.g. an island known in Breton as Breton: Enez c'hlas 'the blue island' is French: l'Île Verte 'the green island' in French, in both cases referring to the grayish-green color of its bushes, even though both languages distinguish green from blue.
The Romance terms for "green" (Catalan , French , Galician, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish ) are all from Latin . The terms for "blue", on the other hand, vary: Catalan , Occitan , French and Italian come from a Germanic root, whereas the Spanish, Galician and Portuguese azul is likely to come from Arabic. French bleu was in turn loaned into many other languages, including English. Latin itself did not have a word covering all shades of blue, which may help explain these borrowings. It did, however, recognise (dark blue, sometimes greenish), and (grayish blue, like lead).
French, as most Romance languages, makes roughly the same distinctions as English and has a specific term for each of blue (""), green ("") and gray (""). For all three, different shades can be indicated with different (compound) terms, none of them being considered as basic color terms: "bleu " (light blue), "bleu " (sky blue), "bleu " (Navy blue), "bleu " (royal blue); "vert clair" (light green), "vert " (literally: apple green); "gris " (deep gray), "gris " (literally: "mouse gray"). French also uses "" for the lighter shade of blue of the sunny sky, that was in turn loaned to English as "azure".
Catalan distinguishes blue () from green () and gray (). Other basic or common colors by its own right are "purple", "yellow", or "orange", "red", "pink", "brown", "gray", "black" and "white". For all these colors except black and white it is possible to indicate different shades using "light" and "dark"; for blue, though, it generally is blau cel "sky blue" and blau marí "sea blue". Other words and compounds are common to indicate more elaborated shades (verd llimona "lemon green", rosa pàl·lid "pale pink", lila "lilac", granat "carmine", ocre "ocher", verd oliva "olive green", etc.). Catalan actually distinguishes two reds with different and common words: while refers to the color of blood, is a red tending towards yellow or the color of clay.[29]
Italian distinguishes blue (), green () and gray (). There are also common words for light blue (e.g. the color of the cloudless sky): and , and other for darker shades, e.g. , indigo. , the equivalent of the English azure, is usually considered a separate basic color rather than a shade of blu (similar to the distinction in English between red and pink). Some sources even go to the point of defining blu as a darker shade of azzurro.[30] Celeste literally means '(the color) of the sky' and can be used as synonym of azzurro, although it will more often be considered a less saturated hue.[31] [32] (aquamarine) literally "sea water", indicates an even lighter, almost transparent, shade of blue. To indicate a mix of green and blue, Italians might say verde , literally water green. The term , not common in standard Italian and perceived as a literary term, is used in scientific contexts (esp. botany) to indicate a mix of blue, green and gray.[33] Other similar terms are and (turquoise/teal); they are more saturated hues (especially turchese) and differ in context of use: the first is a literary or bureaucratic term (used for example to indicate light green eyes in identity cards); the second is more common in any informal speech, along with the variant turchino (for instance, the fairy of The Adventures of Pinocchio is called fata turchina).
In Portuguese, the word "" means blue and the word "" means green. Furthermore, "azul-" means light-blue, and "azul-" means dark-blue. More distinctions can be made between several hues of blue. For instance, "azul-" means sky blue, "azul-" means navy-blue and "azul-" means turquoise-blue. One can also make the distinction between "verde-claro" and "verde-escuro", meaning light and dark-green respectively, and more distinctions between several qualities of green: for instance, "verde-" means olive-green and "verde-" means emerald-green. Cyan is usually called "azul-celeste" (sky blue) and "verde-", meaning water green.
Romanian clearly distinguishes between the colors green () and blue (). It also uses separate words for different hues of the same color, e.g. light blue (), blue (albastru), dark-blue (bleu- or ), along with a word for turquoise () and azure ( or ).
Similarly to French, Romanian, Italian and Portuguese, Spanish distinguishes blue () and green () and has an additional term for the tone of blue visible in the sky, namely "", which is nonetheless considered a shade of blue.
In Old Norse, the word Norse, Old: {{linktext|blár (from proto-Germanic Germanic languages: {{linktext|blēwaz) was also used to describe black (and the common word for people of African descent was thus Norse, Old: {{linktext|blámenn). In Swedish, Swedish: {{linktext|blå, the modern word for blue, was used this way until the early 20th century, and it still is to a limited extent in modern Faroese.
German and Dutch distinguish blue (respectively German: {{linktext|blau and Dutch; Flemish: {{linktext|blauw) and green (German: {{linktext|grün and Dutch; Flemish: {{linktext|groen), very similarly to English. There are (compound) terms for light blue (German: {{linktext|hellblau and Dutch; Flemish: {{linktext|lichtblauw) and darker shades of blue (German: {{linktext|dunkelblau and Dutch; Flemish: {{linktext|donkerblauw). In addition, adjective forms of most traditional color names are inflected to match the corresponding noun's case and gender.
The words for "blue" and "green" completely changed in the transition from Ancient Greek to Modern Greek.
Ancient Greek had Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γλαυκός "clear light blue" contrasting with Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: χλωρός "bright green"; for darker shades of both colors, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γλαυκός and Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: χλωρός were replaced by Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κυανός, meaning either a "dark blue or green". The words had more than one modern meaning: in addition to "clear light blue", Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γλαυκός also meant "turquoise" and "teal-green" – it was the typical description of the color of the goddess Athena's eyes, portrayed as either gray or light blue. As well as "bright green", Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: χλωρός was also used for "acid yellow" (compare "chlorophyll"). Furthermore, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κυανός not only meant "turquoise" and "teal-green", but could mean either a "dark blue" or "dark green" or just "blue" (adopted into English as "cyan" for light sky-blue).
Those terms changed in Byzantine Greek as seen from the insignia colors of two of Constantinople's rival popular factions: Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Πράσινοι ("the Greens") and Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Bένετοι ("the Blues"). It is not known if those groups' names influenced the word change or if they were named using the new color terms, but whichever way it went, Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: πράσινος is a Modern Greek word for "green".
The ancient term for blue (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: γλαυκός) has become an archaic term in Modern Greek, replaced by Greek, Modern (1453-);: γαλάζιος or Greek, Modern (1453-);: θαλασσής ("sea colored") for light blue / sea blue, and the recent indeclinable loan-word Greek, Modern (1453-);: μπλε (from French French: bleu; Greek, Modern (1453-);: μπ =) is used for blue.
In the Modern Greek language, there are names for light and dark blues and greens in addition to those discussed above:
| Modern Greek | Transliteration | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: τυρκουάζ | turquoise | ||
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: κυανός | azure (old Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κυανός; see above) | ||
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: λαχανί | ("cabbage colored") | lime green | |
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: λαδής | olive green | ||
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: χακί | dark khaki | ||
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: κυπαρισσί | ("cypress colored") | brownish green |
As a rule, the first two words of the list are accepted as shades of blue, and the rest as shades of green. Also Greek, Modern (1453-);: βιολέ / Greek, Modern (1453-);: βιολετί for violet blue (which is, however, usually considered as a shade of purple, rather than blue).
Ossetian has only one word for blue, light blue and green—Ossetian; Ossetic: цъæх, which also means "gray" and "glaucous"—but it also has a separate word for green, Ossetian; Ossetic: кæрдæгхуыз, literally "grassy" (from Ossetian; Ossetic: кæрдæг). The latter derives from Ossetian; Ossetic: кæрдын (like in German German: Heu (German: hau) < German: hauen).
Ossetian also has separate words for the following colors:
Pashto uses the word Pushto; Pashto: shīn to denote blue as well as green. Pushto; Pashto: Shinkay, a word derived from Pushto; Pashto: shīn, means 'greenery' but Pushto; Pashto: shīn āsmān means 'blue sky'. One way to disambiguate is to ask "Pushto; Pashto: Shīn like the sky? Or Pushto; Pashto: shīn like plants?" (Blue and green are however distinguished using different words in the eastern parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, due to contact with other languages.)
Persian words for blue include Persian: آبی (literally the color of water, from), for blue generally; Persian: نیلی (from, 'indigo dye'), for deeper shades of blue such as the color of rain clouds; Persian: فیروزه 'turquoise stone', used to describe the color of blue eyes; Persian: لاجوردی or Persian: لاژوردی 'lapis lazuli color', source of the words lazuli and azure; Persian: نیلوفری 'water lily color'; and Persian: کبود, an old literary word for 'blue'.
The Persian word for green is Persian: سبز . As in Sudan, dark-skinned people may be described as "green".
The color of the sky is variously described in Persian poetry using the words,,,, or — literally "green", "indigo", "turquoise", "azure" or "the color of water lilies". For example, "green stable", "green ceiling", "green balcony", and "green peacock" are poetic epithets for the sky—in addition to similar compounds using the words for blue, e.g., "lapis lazuli-colored roof" or "turquoise bowl". Moreover, the words for green of Arabic origin Persian: اخضر and Persian: خضرا are used for epithets of the sky or heaven, such as "green wheel".[34]
Chinalbashe (an unclassified Indo-Aryan language) & Chambyali (a Western Pahari language) have the same term for blue & green, i.e., Takri: ISO: .[35] [36]
Other Indo-Aryan languages distinguish blue from green. In Urdu, blue is Urdu: نیلا and green is Urdu: سبز . There are some names of shades of blue as well, like Urdu: فیروزی .In Hindi, blue is Hindi: नीला and green is Hindi: हरा . In Marathi, blue is Marathi: निळा and green is Marathi: हिरवा . In Bengali, blue is Bengali: নীল and green is Bengali: সবুজ .
In Yoruba, there are only three fundamental terms for colors, one of them, the word Yoruba: dúdú, is used for the word black and colors such as blue, green, purple, and grey. In modern times, unique terms for the colors are formed based on descriptive markers or English loan words, Yoruba: àwọ̀ ewé is used for green, while Yoruba: búlùú (from English "blue") or Yoruba: àwọ̀ aró, is used for blue.
Zulu and Xhosa use the word -luhlaza (the prefix changes according to the class of the noun) for blue/green. Speakers of the two mutually intelligible languages can add a descriptive word after the colour term to differentiate between the two colours i.e. "(lu)hlaza okwesibhakabhaka" meaning – 'like the sky' or (lu)hlaza okwotshani meaning -'like grass'.
The Swahili word for blue is Swahili: buluu, which is derived directly from English and has been in the language for a relatively short time. For other colors, Swahili uses either Swahili: rangi ya ___ or a shortened version, Swahili: -a ___. For example, green is Swahili: rangi ya kijani or Swahili: rangi ya majani . Sky blue is Swahili: rangi ya samawati from the Arabic word for sky Arabic: سَمَاء (plural: Arabic: سَمَاوَات). These examples can be written as Swahili: -a kijani, Swahili: -a majani, Swahili: -a samwati[37]
The Himba people use a single word for shades of green and blue: Herero: buru. They curiously have only three other color names; thus, their limited color perception has both aroused interest in anthropologists, who have studied this phenomenon.
Tswana uses the same word Tswana: tala to refer to both blue and green. One has to deduce from the context and prior knowledge, of what is being talked about, to be able to pinpoint exactly the color in question.
In the language Tsakhur, not only are blue and green distinguished, but also turquoise.[38]
In Eastern Arrernte, the words atherrke and atherrke-atherrke both can be used to refer to the colour green, including some shades of blue and yellow. Additionally, atherrke can also be used as a noun to refer to grass and other small plants.[39]
The Basque language has three native color words derived from Basque: [[:wikt:ur#Basque|ur]] . Basque: Urdin, is nowadays used in most cases for blue. Basque: Ubel originally meant "flash flood" and, with respect to colors, refers to bruises. Basque: Begi ubela would be translated into English by "a black and blue eye". But in Basque, unlike English, Basque: ubel remains in use after the hit skin has lost its purple color and become pale, why this word is used for both "purple" in particular and "pale hue" in general. Basque: Uher originally meant "dirty", "still water", or "rusty"; it is used for gray or sienna tones, and more generally for dark colors. Green is usually expressed with the loan-word Basque: berde from Spanish Spanish; Castilian: verde/French French: vert. The authenticity of the less common Basque terms for green Basque: (h)orlegi and Basque: musker is disputed.[40]
Finnish makes a distinction between Finnish: vihreä and Finnish: sininen . Turquoise or teal (Finnish: turkoosi or Finnish: sinivihreä) is considered to be a separate, intermediate color between green and blue, and Finnish: musta is also differentiated from blue.
The name for blue, Finnish: sininen, is shared with other Finnic languages. Cognates of the root are also found in the Mordvinic languages and it is thus dated even beyond the era of the Proto-Finnic language (2000 years old). It appears similar to a word found in the Slavic languages (Russian Russian: синий), but there is no consensus that there would be a relationship (see Proto-Finnic *sini, Proto-Slavic *siňь). The word Finnish: vihreä (Finnish: viher-, archaic Finnish: viheriä, Finnish: viheriäinen) is related to Finnish: vehreä and Finnish: vihanta, and Finnish: viha, originally . It is not shared with Estonian, in which it is Estonian: roheline, probably related with the Estonian word Estonian: rohi . However, the form Estonian: viha does have correspondences in related languages as far as Permic languages, where it means not only "poison" but "bile" or "green or yellow". It has been originally loaned from an Indo-Iranian protolanguage and is related to Latin Latin: virus . Furthermore, the word Estonian: musta is also of Finnic origin.
The differentiation of several colors by hue is at least Finnic (a major subgroup of Uralic) in origin. Before this, only red (punainen) was clearly distinguished by hue, with other colors described in terms of brightness (valkea vs. musta), using non-color adjectives for further specificity. Alternatively, it appears that the distinction between valkea and musta was in fact "clean, shining" vs. "dirty, murky". The original meaning of sini was possibly either "black/dark" or "green". Mauno Koski's theory is that dark colors of high saturation—both blue and green—would be sini, while shades of color with low saturation, such as dark brown or black, would be musta. Although it is theorized that originally vihreä was not a true color name and was used to describe plants only, the occurrence of vihreä or viha as a name of a color in several related languages shows that it was probably polysemic (meaning both "green" and "verdant") already in early Baltic-Finnic. However, whatever the case with these theories, differentiation of blue and green must be at least as old as the Baltic-Finnic languages.[41]
Hungarian makes the distinction between green (Hungarian: zöld) and blue (Hungarian: kék), and also distinguishes black (Hungarian: fekete). Intermediate colors between green and blue are commonly referred to as Hungarian: zöldeskék (literally greenish-blue) or Hungarian: kékeszöld (bluish-green), but names for specific colors in this continuum—like turquoise (Hungarian: türkiz)—also exist. Particular shades of a color can also have separate names, such as azure (Hungarian: azúr).
The Kazakh language, like many Turkic languages, distinguishes between Kazakh: kök for blue and Kazakh: jasâl for green. In Kazakh, many adjectival variations can be found referring to perceived gradations in saturation level of "blue", such as Kazakh: kögildir, Kazakh: kökshil, and Kazakh: kökboz, which respectively denominate the gradual decrease in the intensity, Kazakh: kökboz being often used as a color referent in its own right. Kazakh: Kök is occasionally used to denote green plants (e.g. Kazakh: kök shöp), but such usage is mostly confined to poetic utterances or certain localized dialects.
Before the standardization and mongolization of the Tuvan language, many centuries ago, Tuvans used the word Tuvinian: kök (from the Proto-Turkic kök – "blue/celestial") for both blue and green. To distinguish the color green from blue, they used to name it sug-kök – "water-blue", no matter how strange it may sound. Although note that Tuvinian: kök was used for green primarily, they used Tuvinian: sug-kök only if they needed to. Thus, blue was Tuvinian: kök, and green was Tuvinian: kök, sug-kök. However, the dark hues of both colors can be named similarly as Tuvinian: kök even nowadays.
Over time, due to the diversity of the country (Tuva being at the border of different major tribes, both Turkic and Mongol), the green color was named differently from one area to another. In some parts, Tuvans used Tuvinian: chazhyl ("green" in the majority of the Turkic languages), other parts used the Mongol Tuvinian: nogoon, the rest used the traditional Tuvinian: kök/sug-kok.
Under the influence of the Mongol Empire and due to the need to standardize the language at the beginning of the 20th century, the word green became Tuvinian: nogoon (from the Mongolian "green"). The linguists who were responsible for the standardization had to take into account two factors: the Mongolization of the language, and the lack of the word for green. They decided to use the Mongolian word for green because they wanted to implicate the Mongol legacy in the lexicon.
Hence today, in the standardized Tuvan language, blue and green are named differently, but it led to the following controversies:
Nowadays, the "Blue-green distinction" topic is quite forgotten, people are used to the usage of Tuvinian: nogoon. In general, Mongolisms in the lexicon of the Tuvan language are not considered unusual.
Turkish treats dark or navy blue (Turkish: lacivert, from the same Persian root as English "azure" and "lapis lazuli") as a separate color from plain or light blue (Turkish: mavi). Turkish: Mavi is derived from the Arabic word Arabic: مائي (Arabic: ماء being the Arabic word for water) and Turkish: lacivert is derived from Persian Persian: لاجورد, a semiprecious stone with the color of navy blue. In the pre-Islamic religion of the Turks, blue is the color that represented the east, as well as the zodiac sign Aquarius (the Water Bearer). A characteristic tone of blue, turquoise, was much used by the Turks for their traditional decorations and jewelry.
In traditional pre-Islamic Turkic culture, both blue and green were represented by the same name, Turkish: gök . The name is still in use in many rural areas. For instance, in many regions of Turkey, when mold is formed on cheese, the phenomenon is called Turkish: göğermek .