blue means green
In English when we refer to someone or something as new or fresh we use the word green, but in Japanese blue is used to describe new and fresh. Why is that? Because, as the theory goes, when babies of asian decent are born they almost always have a large blue bruise-like birthmark on their behinds or lower backs. Even though I am caucasian my daughter Frances has a light blue birthmark or "mongolian bruise" on her bum. The mongolian bruise or spot as they are called are sometimes confused with bruises caused by child abuse. Blue=Young. This explains the fruits but what about the traffic light? Like I said, this is just a theory. What do you think?
Well, when you look at the kanji for "blue" it means "growing things in the moonlight". So I always thought it referred to the color that plants are usually drawn or painted in moonlit scenes--a blue-toned green. In contrast, midori is the color of fresh shoots--a yellow-green. In Japanese, a light blue is called by the same name as in English: sky-blue (sora iro).
I think that cultures just draw the line differently. How can one explain that in English the color blue can refer both to indigo and sky-blue? In fact, why does English have a separate color name for red mixed with white (pink), black mixed with white (gray), purple mixed with white (lavender) and brown mixed with white (beige); but not for blue, green, yellow, or orange mixed with white?
I like your theory. In English, the expression that someone is "green" or a "greenhorn" meant that they are too young to have learned from experience. In Japanese, the compounds for youth and inexperience contain ao (blue).
::posted by: M Sinclair Stevens at July 28, 2003 12:05 PM
Oh. I thought, what did I think about your theory, not what did I think about traffic lights. Well they look aquamarine to me--definitely a green on with blue tones, not yellow. So, yeah. I'd call them blue.
::posted by: M Sinclair Stevens at July 30, 2003 10:19 AM
sorry, you did answer my question and very well I might add.
::posted by: Mark at July 31, 2003 12:23 PM
Funny thing. Koreans use "blue" to describe green things too. As for who used "blue" first, that'll depend on whether you ask a Korean or Japanese - or should I say Japanese or Korean? As for the Chinese, I just learned anecdotally that they call green "green", but interestingly enough, they'll call purple things "red".
::posted by: Matte Chi at September 6, 2003 05:08 AM
Well I dont know about the traffic light thing, but just thought I'd let you know that we just had a baby girl who has a mongolian blue spot on her right thigh. Although we (parents) are both white English! Strange hey? i heard it is a mark left by the spirt who slaps the baby to life. Any thought?
::posted by: jessica at February 23, 2004 04:19 AM
jessica, first off congratulations on your baby girl! Well, babies of both caucasian parents born with a mongolian spot is not unheard of, just rare. From what I have read even babies caucasian have a 1-10% chance of being born with the blue markings. I think what this really shows us is that the lines between races have been blurred as humans continue to mix.
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Reported incidences in representative ethnic infants are as follows:
Asian: 95-100%, East African: 90-95%, Native American: 85-90%, Hispanic: 50-70%, Caucasian: 1-10%
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i really don't know what to make of these above stats because they don't take into account parents of mixed ethnicity, and seem to state that there are defined pure races, which in fact is false.
::posted by: mark at February 23, 2004 10:07 AM
