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Japanese word for "blue" is apparently "boo-roo" “The Japanese language has no exact word for the color blue. The term the Japanese use, ao, is ambiguous – bes
by Eric_WVGG 10y ago
Japanese word for "blue" is apparently "boo-roo"
“The Japanese language has no exact word for the color blue. The term the Japanese use, ao, is ambiguous – best translated as blue-green. Ao has the connotations of immaturity and inexperience that the English word green has. When the Japanese wish to be exact – when describing the color of Siamese cats' eyes, for example – they will sometimes resort to the English word blue, which they pronounce "boo-roo."”
https://www.wired.com/1995/03/blue-laser/ https://www.wired.com/1995/03/blue-laser/
- themodelplumber 10y agoI've heard aozora for blue sky many times, so it's true but not used as a substitute in every case. One of my favorite confusing words is charenji, or "challenge", which essentially means "to try [doing something difficult]". So a Japanese tourist couple shows up at an American bungee jump and they tell the guys, "we want to challenge!" which sounds like a mistaken version of "we want _A_ challenge" in English. So the junior bungee jump guy looks over at his boss, and says, "hey...these two say they want a challenge..." not realizing they just want to try a normal bungee jump.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Grue3 10y ago水色 is blue. I have never seen ブルー being used.
- glandium 10y ago水色 is one kind of color blue. ブルー is used for another kind of color blue, or for a broader spectrum of blue (it's also used for melancholia).
- beevai142 10y agoMany words in languages do not have an exact counterpart in a given different language. The blue-green issue in particular is not unique to the English---Japanese language pair, cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%E2%80%93green_distinction_in_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%E2%80%93green_distinction...
- fenomas 10y agoI don't think that passage came within ten feet of anyone who speaks Japanese. Ao doesn't mean blue-green, it's more of a word that spans both, with set usages for things we'd consider unambiguously one or the other (e.g. a cloudless sky, or the "go" part of a traffic light). In the context of eyes it always means blue though, so the example doesn't make much sense.
- xg15 10y agoOut of couriosity, how do they describe green eyes then? or do they have a separate word that only means green?
- fenomas 10y agoYep - it's "midori". I'm no expert but according to wikipedia it all stems from a time when Japanese had only four color names (red, white, black and "ao"), whereas other more specific names came later.
- xg15 10y agoAh, that makes sense. Thank you.
- wodenokoto 10y agoMidori is green.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- empath75 10y agoSaying it's pronounced 'boo-roo' is sort of misleading. Japanese r's are almost like Spanish r's where it's almost an l sound or even a d sound. If you say it fast, it's not too far off of 'blue'.