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> yellow probably existed already as well then Apparently Japanese traditionally only had the four - what the article calls "red" was used for any warm color,
by fenomas 9y ago
> yellow probably existed already as well then
Apparently Japanese traditionally only had the four - what the article calls "red" was used for any warm color, and "ao" covered any cool color.
Interestingly, the usage was pretty fluid. Now that I read up about it, it seems that "ao" was used for anything from pale gray all the way to dark purple overlapping with black. This survives curiously in some quasi-archaic usage - 青毛 (lit. "blue fur"), meaning a black horse, and 青馬 ("blue horse") for a pale gray or white horse.
- wutbrodo 9y agoI don't think the blue horse thing is an example of this, as it also exists in English to some degree. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brabanter.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brabanter.jpg This horse is considered a "blue roan".
- fenomas 9y ago> I don't think the blue horse thing is an example of this An example of what? Japanese "ao" referring to white or black horses is a direct holdover from ao's vague early usage, but that doesn't mean it's unique to Japanese. I'd imagine the "blue roan" thing is due to "blue" having earlier meanings of gray or lead-colored, but a quick google didn't turn up any explanations about the horse specifically.