Colour words in Vietnamese (màu sắc)

Words for colours in Vietnamese with notes on their etymology and usage.

The word for colour, màu, can be added before the other colour words to make it clear that you are talking about colours. If that is clear from the context, there's no need to use it, except in the case of gold (vàng) and yellow (màu vàng).

đen (𪓇); màu đen - black

Black is associated with dark, evil and filth

trắng (𤽸); màu trắng - white

White is associated with purity, death and the end

đỏ (𣠶) - red

Red is associated with happiness, love, luck and celebration

màu vàng - yellow (colour) vàng (黄) - gold (colour / metal);

Yellow is associated with wealth, prosperity, royalty, happiness and change

xanh (青) - blue/green; xanh da trời - (sky) blue; xanh lá cây - (tree) green

Naturalized pronunciation of 青 which is ‘thanh’ in standard Sino-Vietnamese
Used to indicate blue/green distinction when translating other languages (e.g. English)
Green is associated with jealousy and lust
Blue is associated with calmness, hope and growth

nâu – - brown; race.

hồng (紅) - pink

Can also mean red in a literary context (reverts to its original Chinese meaning), then it has the same cultural associations as Đỏ.
Modern association with femininity (French)

màu cam - orange (colour); cam - orange (fruit)

chảy máu cam = nosebleed (lit. "to flow orange blood")

xám - grey, blurry, unclear

tím - purple

Colour of bruising from being hit or from being in the cold
Purple is associated with nostalgia, sadness, fragility and tenderness

xám bạc - silver (colour); bạc - silver (metal - from silver 鉑)

Grey hair is referred to as silver hair in Vietnamese

chàm (藍) - indigo (from the plant indigo)

An introduction to Vietnamese colours by Greg Vanderford

Links

More information about colours in Vietnamese
http://baohouse.net/post/16435862965/color-connotations-in-the-vietnamese-culture
http://www.digitaldialects.com/Vietnamese/Colour.htm

Learn to Speak Vietnamese Like a Native, an online course by Greg Vanderford
https://www.udemy.com/learn-to-speak-vietnamese-like-a-native/

Colour words in other languages

If you need to type in many different languages, the Q International Keyboard can help. It enables you to type almost any language that uses the Latin, Cyrillic or Greek alphabets, and is free.

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