Blue on blue

Wilson Gray wilson.gray at RCN.COM
Thu Oct 7 03:49:18 UTC 2004


I didn't expect that "red" vs. "orange" would be so much fun! Let's try
another.

In English we have a single word, "blue," for a color that has several
different "shades." On the other hand, Russian has *two* words for
"blue": sinii, which means, approximately, colors similar to the
"shade" that English-speakers term "dark blue," and "goluboi," which
means, approximately, colors similar to the "shade" that
English-speakers term "light blue," though it also has a literal
meaning, "dove-colored." Supposedly, for a Russian, these two "colors"
are as distinct as "red" and "orange" are for English speakers. And,
like "orange," "goluboi" is based on the name of an object that
epitomizes that color.

-Wilson Gray



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