Translingual

Han character

黒 (radical 203 黑+0, 11 strokes, cangjie input 田土火 (WGF) or X田土火 (XWGF), composition ⿱里灬)

References

• KangXi: not present, would follow page 1518, character 36
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 48040
• Dae Jaweon: page 2052, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian: not present, would follow volume 7, page 4743, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9ED2

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 黑)

1. black

Readings

• Goon: こく (koku)
• Kan’on: こく (koku)
• Kun: くろ (kuro)

Compounds

Etymology

黒 (kuro): the colour black.

From Old Japanese. Via root morpheme *kur, cognate with kuri (涅, "black mud from the bed of a body of water"),^[1] noun kura (暗, "darkness; deception"; 蔵, 倉, 庫 "[dark] storehouse") > adjective kurai (暗い, "dark"), verb kuru > kureru (暮れる, "to become dark; to near the end [of a day, of a year, of a life]"; 暗れる, 眩れる, "to become depressed, to become dreary of mood"). Compare Proto-Turkic *kara ‎(“black”), Mongolian хар ‎(har, “black”).

Possibly cognate with Korean 구름 ‎(gureum, “cloud”); compare also Japanese 雲 ‎(kumo, “cloud”) and Korean *검 ‎(geom, “black”), root morpheme of 검다 ‎(geomda, “to be black”, ve​rb), 검은 ‎(geomeun, “black”, adjective).

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) く​ろ [kúꜜrò] (Atamadaka - [1])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [kɯᵝɺ̠o̞]

Noun

黒 ‎(shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 黑, hiragana くろ, romaji kuro)

1. the colour black
2. a 女房詞 ‎(nyōbō kotoba, “woman's word”) for 鍋 ‎(nabe, “pot, pan”) or 釜 ‎(kama, “pot, kettle”)
3. (accounting) short for 黒字 ‎(kuroji): black as an accounting term, indicating a profit
4. (euphemistic) short for 黒幕 ‎(kuromaku): a black curtain, a euphemism for someone influencing or controlling matters from behind the scenes
5. guilt; the guilty one, the guilty party
6. (slang) anarchy as a belief system or philosophy; an anarchist

Synonyms

• (pot, pan): 鍋 (なべ) ‎(nabe)
• (pot, kettle): 釜 (かま) ‎(kama)
• (profits): 黒字 (くろじ) ‎(kuroji)
• (controller behind the scenes): 黒幕 (くろまく) ‎(kuromaku)
• (guilt): 有罪 (ゆうざい) ‎(yūzai)
• (anarchy): 無政府主義 (むせいふしゅぎ) ‎(museifushugi)
• (anarchist): 無政府主義者 (むせいふしゅぎしゃ) ‎(museifushugisha)

Antonyms

• (guilt): 白 (しろ) ‎(shiro): innocence

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

References

1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9