Giant Freaking Japanese Color List

asiaticfanaticblog:

This list’s intention is to give quite a few common-ish colors a home together in one post for learning purposes and spicing up one’s color vocabulary. For color names that don’t match their English equivalents, I’ve given what I feel is the most accurate translation of the name, plus the literal meaning of the Japanese name for the color. I’ve mostly excluded color names like 

真っ黒(まっくろ)pure black

墨色(すみいろ)inky black (literally ink color)

濡れ羽色(ぬればいろ)jet black (literally wet wing color)

烏羽色(からすばいろ) glossy black (literally crow wing black)

鈍色(にぶいろ)dark, dull grey (literally dull color)

鉛色(なまりいろ)lead color (livid)

鼠色(ねずみいろ) darkish grey, like rat fur (literally rat color)

鋼色(はがねいろ)steel color (steel blue, blueish-gray)

桜色(さくらいろ)pale pink (literally cherry blossom color)

桃色(ももいろ)light pink (literally (Japanese) peach color)

岩礁色(がんしょういろ)coral reef color (darkish pink)

真っ赤(まっか)pure red

紅梅色(こうばいいろ)red Japanese plum color

紅色(べにいろ)crimson

鉄色(てついろ)reddish-black (literally iron color)

橙色(だいだいいろ)orange

茜色(あかねいろ)deep reddish-orange (like that of a sunset) (literally madder red)

柿色(かきいろ)reddish-brown (literally persimmon color)

朱色(しゅいろ)vermillion/ cinnabar

緋色(ひいろ)vermillion (often translated as scarlet)

鳥の子色(とりのこいろ)eggshell color (literally bird’s egg color)

玉子色(たまごいろ)light yellowish (literally egg color)

山吹色(やまぶきいろ)bright, golden yellow (literally mountain blow color (wish I knew about this one for my previous color post..))

黄土色(おうどいろ)yellow ochre

琥珀色(こはくいろ)amber color

萌黄色 (もえぎいろ) yellowish-green (literally sprouting yellow color)

柳色(やなぎいろ)pea green (literally willow green)

鶯色(うぐいいろ)similar to olive green, perhaps slightly lighter (literally Japanese nightingale green)

苔色(こけいろ)moss green

若草色(わかくさいろ)chartreuse, lime grren (literally young grass color)

翡翠色(ひすいいろ)jade green

千歳緑 (ちとせみどり)evergreen (literally 1,000 year green)

仙斎茶 or千歳茶 (せんさいちゃ)dark brownish-green (literally 1,000 year tea)

鴨の羽色(かものはいろ)teal (literally duck wing color)

青緑色 or 青緑(せいりょくしょく or あおみどり)   turquoise/ aqua (literally blue-green color)

碧色(へきしょく)greenish-blue (sorta that sea water blue color)

真っ青(まっさお)pure blue

白殺しor 藍白 (しろころし or あいじろ)very light whitish blue (literally white killing or indigo white)

瓶覗色(かめのぞきいろ)lightish blue (literally water jug peek color)

水色(みずいろ)light blue (literally water color)

空色(そらいろ)sky blue

浅葱色(あさぎいろ)dark cyan (literally pale leek color.. ??)

縹色(はなだいろ)light blue

瑠璃色(るりいろ)cobalt blue

紺碧(こんぺき)azure

紺色(こんいろ)navy blue

勝つ色(かついろ)dark, blackish indigo (literally victory color)

藍色(あいいろ) indigo

藤色(ふじいろ)lavender (literally wisteria color)

ライラック lilac

菫色(すみれいろ)violet

葡萄色(えびいろ or ぶどういろ)dark purple, maroon (literally shrimp color or grape color respectively)

ベージュ色(ベージュいろ)beige

肌色(はだいろ)skin color

茶色(ちゃいろ)tawny brown, lightish brown (literally tea color)

狐色(きつねいろ)light brown, orangish-brown (literally fox color)

褐色(かっしょく)brown

鳶色(とびいろ)auburn (literally black kite color (a type of bird))

焦げ茶色(こげちゃいろ)dark brown (literally burnt tea brown)

銅色(あかがねいろ)copper

青銅色(せいどういろ)bronze (that sort of greenish rusted bronze) (literally blue copper/bronze color)

—-these last few are just color-related terms—-

蛍光(けいこう)fluorescent

透明(とうめい)clear

メタリック(metallic)

Alright, that about covers everything I wanted to put in this post. I shied away from including colors that are loanwords (like オリーブ色)because they are usually pretty self-explanatory. feel free to correct me if I made any errors, or add other colors you find important which I may have missed. If people make enough additions to add other advanced colors, I may end up making a part 2 for this post. Thanks for reading.

amarielah:

machigaeru:

I started Hebrew, which is why I’ve been dead on this blog, but I don’t think I can ever properly convey to you guys the sheer cultural whiplash of spending years learning Japanese from Japanese teachers and then trying to learn Hebrew from an Israeli

  • Japanese: you walk into class already apologizing for being alive
    Hebrew: you walk into class, the teacher insults you and you are expected to insult her back
  • Japanese: conjugates every single verb based on degree of intended politeness, nevermind keigo and honorifics
    Hebrew: Someone asked my teacher how to say “excuse me” and she laughed for several seconds before saying we shouldn’t worry about remembering that since we’ll never need to say it
  • Japanese: if you get one stroke wrong the entire kanji is incomprehensible
    Hebrew: cursive? script? fuck it do whatever you want, you don’t even have to write the vowels out unless you feel like it
  • Japanese: the closest thing there is to ‘bastard’ is an excessively direct ‘you’ pronoun
    Hebrew: ‘bitch’ translates directly

Fun fact: Israel has possibly the lowest power-distance metric of any culture in the world, while Japan has one of the highest. I didn’t realize that the CTO of my company was the CTO until somebody else told me, because everybody called him by his first name and engaged in mutual shit-talking/playful insults with him.

In Japan, even calling your boss by the wrong honorific is liable to get you in trouble.

And apparently there’s some sciencey cooperative venture going on between Israel and Japan in an official diplomatic capacity. I want to be a fly on the wall when Japanese and Israeli scientists work together.