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 |
Grammar Party 