Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Han character

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

1. Kangxi radical #139, ⾊ ‎(“color”).

Derived terms

• Index:Chinese radical/色
• 絶

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

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 色
Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Uncertain.

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

Pronunciation

Definitions

色

1. color/colour; tint; hue; shade

   顏色 / 颜色  ―  yánsè  ―  color

2. look; expression
3. kind; sort

   貨色 / 货色  ―  huòsè  ―  goods; stuff; trash; rubbish; quality of goods; specification

4. feminine charm; beauty

   姿色  ―  zīsè  ―  good looks (of women)

5. sexual; lewd

   色情  ―  sèqíng  ―  pornography; sex

6. (colloquial) being a perv
7. theatrical role
8. metallic content

Synonyms

• (color): 顏／颜 (yán)

Compounds

Japanese

Stroke order

Kanji

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: しき (shiki)
• Kan’on: しょく (shoku)
• Kun: いろ (iro), いろえ (iroe) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Nanori: しか (shika), しこ (shiko)

Compounds

Etymology 1

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

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) いろ​ [ìróꜜ] (Odaka - [2])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [iɺ̠o̞]

Noun

色 ‎(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

色 ‎(-na inflection, hiragana いろ, romaji iro)

1. (archaic) of exceptional beauty of form or appearance
   • Utsubo Monogatari, late 10th c.:

     いろなる娘 (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)色 (いろ)なる人 (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)れずもある住 (す)まひの様 (さま)かな色 (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

色 ‎(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

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

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [iɺ̠o̞e̞]

Noun

色 ‎(hiragana いろえ, romaji iroe)

1. (obsolete) coloring/colouring, design

Etymology 3

From Middle Chinese 色 ‎(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

• On'yomi: Goon
• (Tokyo) しき​ [shìkíꜜ] (Odaka - [2])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ɕikʲi]

Noun

色 ‎(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

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

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

Pronunciation

• On'yomi: Kan'on
• IPA^(key): [ɕo̞kɯᵝ]

Affix

色 ‎(hiragana しょく, romaji shoku)

1. color (US), colour (UK)

Usage notes

Used in compounds.

Derived terms

Counter

色 ‎(hiragana しょく, romaji -shoku)

1. used to count the number of colors

   三 (さん)色 (しょく)刷 (す)り

   sanshoku suri

   three-color printing

See also

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

色 • ‎(saek) (hangeul 색, McCune-Reischauer saek, Yale sayk)

Noun

色 • ‎(saek) ‎(hangeul 색)

1. color

Vietnamese

Han character

色 (sắc, sặc)

1. color