Tuesday, June 1, 2010

日本の色

色(いろ), Colors

red - あか
crimson - くれない
orange - オレンジ、 だいだいいろ
yellow - きいろ
green - みどり
blue - あお
purple - むらさき
white - しろ
black - くろ
gray - グレー、 ねずみいろ
brown - ちゃいろ

Interesting to note, だいだい is the Japanese word for the actual orange fruit, so だいだいいろ literally means orange colored. Similarly, ねずみ means mouse or rat, so ねずみいろ describes something mouse colored, gray. And lastly, ちゃ, as we have learned, is tea. This method of color naming can be extended to various nouns, I've seen, such as the song I mentioned before, 空色デイズ(そらいろデイズ), which means sky colored days.