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Definition 2024


See also:

Translingual

Stroke order
Stroke order

Han character

(radical 139 色+0, 6 strokes, cangjie input 弓日山 (NAU), four-corner 27717, composition)

  1. Kangxi radical #139, (color).

Derived terms

  • Index:Chinese radical/色

References

  • KangXi: page 1014, character 2
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 30602
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1473, character 4
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 5, page 3071, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+8272

Chinese

simp. and trad.

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character
Bronze inscriptions Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series () (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
*srɯɡ
*qʰrɯɡ

Uncertain.

The upper or left compound is interpreted as either (“man”) or (“knife”). The lower or right one is a pictogram of another .

Pronunciation



  • Dialectal data
Variety Location
Mandarin Beijing /sɤ⁵¹/
/ʂai²¹⁴/
Harbin /ʂai²¹³/
/sai²¹³/
/sɤ⁵³/
Tianjin /sai¹³/
/sɤ⁵³/
Jinan /sə²¹³/
/ʂei²¹³/
Qingdao /ʂe⁵⁵/
Zhengzhou /ʂɛ²⁴/
Xi'an /sei²¹/
Xining /sɨ⁴⁴/
Yinchuan /sə¹³/
Lanzhou /ʂə¹³/
Ürümqi /sɤ⁵¹/
/sei⁴⁴/
Wuhan /sɤ²¹³/
Chengdu /se³¹/
Guiyang /sɛ²¹/
Kunming /sə³¹/
Nanjing /səʔ⁵/
Hefei /sɐʔ⁵/
Jin Taiyuan /saʔ²/
Pingyao /sʌʔ¹³/
Hohhot /saʔ⁴³/
Wu Shanghai /səʔ⁵/
Suzhou /səʔ⁵/
Hangzhou /səʔ⁵/
Wenzhou /se²¹³/
Hui Shexian /sɛʔ²¹/
Tunxi /sa⁵/
Xiang Changsha /sə²⁴/
Xiangtan /sæ²⁴/
Gan Nanchang /sɛʔ⁵/
Hakka Meixian /set̚¹/
Taoyuan /set̚²²/
Cantonese Guangzhou /sek̚⁵/
Nanning /sek̚⁵⁵/
Hong Kong /sɐk̚⁵/
Min Xiamen (Min Nan) /sik̚³²/
Fuzhou (Min Dong) /saiʔ²³/
Jian'ou (Min Bei) /sɛ²⁴/
Shantou (Min Nan) /sek̚²/
Haikou (Min Nan) /tek̚⁵/

Rime
Character
Reading # 1/1
Initial () (21)
Final () (134)
Tone (調) Checked (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division () III
Fanqie
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/ʃɨk̚/
Pan
Wuyun
/ʃɨk̚/
Shao
Rongfen
/ʃiek̚/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/ʂik̚/
Li
Rong
/ʃiək̚/
Wang
Li
/ʃĭək̚/
Bernard
Karlgren
/ʂi̯ək̚/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
she
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)
Middle
Chinese
‹ srik ›
Old
Chinese
/*s.rək/
English color; countenance

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character
Reading # 1/1
No. 10989
Phonetic
component
Rime
group
Rime
subdivision
0
Corresponding
MC rime
Old
Chinese
/*srɯɡ/

Definitions

  1. color/colour; tint; hue; shade
    /    yán   color
  2. look; expression
  3. kind; sort
    /    huò   goods; stuff; trash; rubbish; quality of goods; specification
  4. feminine charm; beauty
    姿      good looks (of women)
  5. sexual; lewd
       qíng   pornography; sex
  6. (colloquial) being a perv
  7. theatrical role
  8. metallic content

Synonyms

Compounds


Japanese

Stroke order

Kanji

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
いろ
Grade: 2
kun'yomi

From Old Japanese. Originally referred to kin, indicating siblings sharing the same mother.[1] Later came to indicate feelings of familial love.[1] Apparently this then evolved to refer to romantic love, and by extension sex, or by alternate extension, female beauty. Then by further extension, this came to refer to beauty in general, and then colorfulness, and finally color.

Pronunciation

Noun

(hiragana いろ, romaji iro)

  1. color (US), colour (UK)
  2. the metaphorical color or mood
    1. one's facial coloring or expression
    2. the shape of one's face or appearance; more specifically, beautiful looks or a beautiful figure
    3. lively elegance, enjoyable or interesting charm
    4. apparent thoughtfulness, warmheartedness
    5. the feeling or mood of a thing
    6. the tenor or timber of a voice or sound
    7. in Noh, a section that is chanted at a medium pace; alternately, a decorative poetic section
    8. in 浄瑠璃 (jōruri, puppet show narrative), a lively section that is neither strictly dialog nor narration, but has many elements of dialog
    9. when playing the koto, pushing on a string with the fingers of the left hand to change the pitch of a note, or for vibrato
  3. something related to romantic or sexual love, particularly between genders
    1. the emotions or circumstances of attraction between genders
    2. extramarital relations, an affair
    3. an extramarital lover
    4. a prostitute
    5. a red-light district
  4. the type or kind of something
  5. (informal, slang) various specific kinds of color:
    1. (informal, slang, woman's word) lipstick or rouge
    2. (informal, slang) soy sauce
    3. (informal, slang) paint
Derived terms
Related terms

Adjective

(-na inflection, hiragana いろ, romaji iro)

  1. (archaic) of exceptional beauty of form or appearance
    • Utsubo Monogatari, late 10th c.:
      いろなる (むすめ)どもゐなみて
      ironaru musume domo winamite
      beautiful girls all in a row
  2. (archaic) knowledgeable about lovemaking, sensual; lascivious, lecherous
    • Ochikubo Monogatari, late 10th c.:
      越前守 (えちぜんもり) (いろ)なる (ひと)にて
      echizenmori ironaru hito ni te
      Echizenmori was a man who liked the girls / had quite the libido
  3. (archaic) elegant, tasteful, refined
    • The Tale of Genji, early 11th c.:
      目馴 (めな)れずもある ()まひの (さま)かな (いろ)なる御心 (おこころ)にはをかしくおぼしなさる
      menarezu mo aru sumahi no sama ka na ironaru okokoro ni wa wokashiku oboshinasaru
      "I haven't seen it before, but it looks like a house," he thought bemusedly in his refined mind...

Affix

(hiragana いろ, romaji iro)

  1. kin, blood relative, more specifically family members sharing the same mother
Usage notes

Only found in compounds.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
Grade: 2
kun'yomi

Nominalization of the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, continuative or stem form) of verb 色う (irou, to color something).

Not used in modern Japanese.

Pronunciation

Noun

(hiragana いろえ, romaji iroe)

  1. (obsolete) coloring/colouring, design

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
しき
Grade: 2
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese (srik). Used in Buddhist contexts as a translation of Sanskrit रूप (rūpa, outward appearance, color, form, shape).

The goon reading, so likely the initial borrowing.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

(hiragana しき, romaji shiki)

  1. (Buddhism) material form, specifically the organized body as one of the five constituent elements or skandhas
  2. that which is visible of a thing, specifically form and color
  3. color (US), colour (UK)
Usage notes

Used extensively in compounds.

Derived terms

Etymology 4

Kanji in this term
しょく
Grade: 2
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese (srik, reconstructed by some linguists as /ʃiək/).

The kan'on reading, so likely a later borrowing.[1]

Pronunciation

Affix

(hiragana しょく, romaji shoku)

  1. color (US), colour (UK)
Usage notes

Used in compounds.

Derived terms

Counter

(hiragana しょく, romaji -shoku)

  1. used to count the number of colors
     (さん) (しょく) ()
    sanshoku suri
    three-color printing

See also

Colors in Japanese ·  (いろ) (iro) (layout · text)
      (あか) (aka)       (みどり) (midori)      黄色 (きいろ) (kiiro)      クリーム (いろ) (kurīmuiro)       (しろ) (shiro)
     深紅 (しんく) (shinku),
クリムゾン (kurimuzon),
紅色 (べにいろ) (beniiro),
紅色 (くれないいろ) (kurenaiiro)
     マゼンタ (mazenta)      ?      黄緑 (きみどり) (kimidori)      ピンク (pinku),
桃色 (ももいろ) (momoiro)
     ?       (あお) (ao)      オレンジ (orenji), 橙色 (だいだいいろ) (daidaiiro)      灰色 (はいいろ) (haiiro),
鼠色 (ねずみいろ) (nezumiiro)
     ?
      (くろ) (kuro)       (むらさき) (murasaki)      茶色 (ちゃいろ) (chairo),
褐色 (かっしょく) (kasshoku)
     水色 (みずいろ) (mizuiro)      シアン (shian)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 1988, 国語大辞典(新装版) (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
  3. 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3

Korean

Hanja

(saek) (hangeul , McCune-Reischauer saek, Yale sayk)

Noun

(saek) (hangeul )

  1. color

Vietnamese

Han character

(sắc, sặc)

  1. color