Last time we talked about the ways colors have infused themselves into the English language. Naturally, this happens with other languages, too. But often there’s a little tweak. For instance, in English one could get a black eye, but in French it would be a black butter eye. And in English one could get red with rage, but in Italian it would be green with rage.
Alan Kennedy’s Color/Language Project has collected hundreds and hundreds of idioms involving color from languages across the globe. Below is a small sampling of my favorites from this site. If you enjoy these, I encourage you to check out Alan’s site. You’ll love it.
literal translation | meaning | |
French | ||
passer une nuit blanche | to spend a white night | to have a sleepless night |
blanc-bec | white beak | an inexperienced but pretentious person |
une oie blanche | a white goose | a naive, silly girl |
œil au beurre noir | black butter eye | bruised eye |
Chou vert et vert chou | cabbage green and green cabbage | six of one, a half-dozen of the other |
faire quelqu’un marron | to make someone brown | to cheat on someone |
Spanish | ||
blanca como la nalga de una monja | white like a nun’s butt cheek | pale |
más listo que los ratones colorados | more clever than red mice | very cunning |
un principe azul | a blue prince | Prince Charming |
Italian | ||
di punto in bianco | from a point in white | suddenly, unexpectedly |
verde dalla rabbia | green from rage | very angry |
un giallo | a yellow | an unsolved mystery |
eminenza grigia | gray eminence | a powerful man controlling the situation behind the scenes |
German | ||
Halbgötter in Weiß | demigods in white | physicians |
Heute rot, Morgen tot | today red, tomorrow dead | here today, gone tomorrow |
das Gelbe vom Ei | the yellow of the egg | a good thing |
Blauäugig sein | to be blue-eyed | naïve, gullible |
Nachts sind alle Katzen grau | at night all cats are gray | It makes no difference (under certain circumstances). |
sich eine goldene Nase verdienen | earn yourself a golden nose | to make a fortune |
Polish | ||
mieć żółte papiery | to have yellow papers | to be insane |
myśleć o niebieskich migdałach | to think about blue almonds | to daydream |
szary cztowiek | gray person | average Joe |
Russian | ||
отложить на чёрный день | put aside for a black day | put aside for a rainy day |
голубая мечта | light blue desire | the thing you crave the most |
Hebrew | ||
אין לי מושג ירוק | I don’t have a green notion | I have no idea |
צהובים זה לזה | yellow to each other | hating each other |
טלית שכולה תכלת | a light blue prayer shawl | innocent & pure (used sarcastically) |
Scottish Gaelic | ||
chan ‘eil e geal da | he has no white for him | he is not fond of him |
dearg-amadan | a red fool | a complete fool |
Tagalog | ||
maputi ang tainga | white-eared | stingy |
maitim ang buto | bone is black | bad person |
Greek | ||
άσπρο πάτο! | white bottom! | bottoms up! |
μαύρα μάτια κάναμε να σε δούμε | our eyes turned black to see you | we missed you for a long time |
πράσινα άλογα | green horses! | an exclamation indicating disbelief; nonsense |
πρασίνισε απ’το κακό του | he turned green from anger | he got very angry |
“blanca como la nalga de una monja”
… white like a nun’s butt cheek.
Well, that’s just brilliant. 😀
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This is great. When you listed the English idioms I was thinking, “Yeah, I know, but what do they say in other languages?” Thanks for the link and the choice selections [that’s NOT redundant].
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“light blue desire”… Wonder what the origin of that is. Neat stuff!
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tag!
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You might just be so stunningly brilliant that I have to wear sunglasses to read you. 😉
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Please don’t make me blush. I’m working on my pallor.
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Hmmm. Ok. Pallor is easy in the winter, so I can only wonder why that is: are you preparing for for the invasion of illiterate and pale vampires and zombies and aliens, so that you can move easily amongst them as you correct their grammar?
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eeep! Only ONE ‘for’ — I suppose I should be wearing my editor hat when I comment. sorry: feel free to edit and correct.
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Preparing for the invasion? Darling, it’s already here. And a lot of those vampires are going to want to put out lengthy memoirs.
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We in Canada are often the last to know about everything, but that DOES explain a whole bunch of everything. Vampires are rather verbose, aren’t they? I suppose that’s the 17th C ethic/aesthetic that they hold dear in their cold, dead hearts.
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This is an awesome list! I saved a couple just to help lighten the null from other reading materials I have to cover. Light blue desire……awesome.
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Thanks for the link. FYI the site has a new location on the web now:
https://thecolorlanguageproject.wordpress.com/
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