青

See also: 靑

Translingual

Stroke order

Japanese stroke order

Alternative forms

• 靑

Etymology

Ideogrammic compound (會意): 生 (“growth of plants”) + 丹 (“cinnabar”) – 生 represents growing plants. Cinnabar was used for dying items red, implying color which red stands as the most representative form of. Giving the meaning "color of growing plants", hence blue-green.

Top component is cognate to 生 (“grass”), but bottom component now resembles the unrelated 月 (“moon”).

Han character

青 (radical 174 靑+0, 8 strokes, cangjie input 手一月 (QMB), four-corner 5022₇, composition ⿱龶月)

1. green, blue, black, azure
2. young
3. clear

Descendants

• Index:Chinese radical/靑
• 清 (凊), 菁, 請 (请), 晴, 蜻, 精, 倩, 崝, 𩇕, 猜, 靖, 情, 婧, 綪

See also

• 責 素

References

• KangXi: not present, would follow page 1381, character 19
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 42564
• Dae Jaweon: page 1893, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 6, page 4046, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9752

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Chinese

		-
simp. and trad.		青

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): qīng (qing¹)

  (Zhuyin): ㄑㄧㄥ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): ceng¹, cing¹
• Hakka (Pha̍k-fa-sṳ): tshiang
• Min Nan (POJ): chheⁿ / chhiⁿ / chheng

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: qīng
    • Zhuyin: ㄑㄧㄥ
    • Wade-Giles: ch'ing¹
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: ching
    • IPA ^(key): /t͡ɕʰiŋ⁵⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: ceng¹, cing¹
    • Yale: chēng, chīng
    • Cantonese Pinyin: tseng¹, tsing¹
    • IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰɛːŋ⁵⁵/, /t͡sʰɪŋ⁵⁵/
• Hakka
  • Romanisations:
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: tshiang
    • IPA (Siyen, incl. Miaoli): /tshi̯aŋ⁵⁵/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chheⁿ / chhiⁿ / chheng
    • Tâi-lô: tshenn / tshinn / tshing
    • IPA (Taipei): /t͡sʰẽ⁴⁴/, /t͡ɕʰĩ⁴⁴/, /t͡ɕʰɪŋ⁴⁴/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /t͡sʰẽ³⁴/, /t͡ɕʰĩ³⁴/, /t͡ɕʰɪŋ³⁴/
  • Note: chheⁿ, chhiⁿ - vernacular, chheng - literary.

Middle Chinese pronunciation (青, reconstructed)
Character (青), Pronunciation 1/1
Initial: 清 (14) Final: 青 Division: IV			Openness: Open Tone: Level (Ø)			Fanqie: 倉經切
Zhengzhang Shangfang	Bernard Karlgren	Li Rong	Pan Wuyun	Edwin Pulleyblank	Wang Li	Shao Rongfen
/t͡sʰeŋ/	/t͡sʰieŋ/	/t͡sʰeŋ/	/t͡sʰeŋ/	/t͡sʰɛjŋ/	/t͡sʰieŋ/	/t͡sʰɛŋ/

Old Chinese pronunciation (青, reconstructed)
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character								Modern Beijing (Pinyin)								Middle Chinese								Old Chinese								English
青								qīng								‹ tsheng ›								/*[s.r̥ ]ˤeŋ/								green or blue
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					No.					Phonetic component					Rime group					Rime subdivision					Corresponding MC rime					Old Chinese					Notes
青					11362					生					耕					0					靑					/*sʰleːŋ/					說文從生丹，戴桐王筠皆雲從丹生聲

Definitions

青

1. green; if about grass, plants, mountain etc.
2. blue; if about the sky, a stone etc.
3. black; if about hair, cloth etc.
4. young

Compounds

• 青白
• 青菜 (qīngcài)
• 青草
• 青出于蓝 (qīngchūyúlán)
• 青春 (qīngchūn)
• 青春痘
• 青春期
• 青瓷
• 青葱
• 青翠
• 青灯
• 青豆
• 青肥
• 青梗菜
• 青光眼 (qīngguāngyǎn)
• 青红皂白 (qīnghóng zàobái)
• 青花瓷
• 青黄不接
• 青灰
• 青椒 (qīngjiāo)
• 青筋
• 青筋暴露
• 青稞
• 青空
• 青睐
• 青藜 (qīng lí)
• 青莲色
• 青龙
• 青绿
• 青梅
• 青梅竹马
• 青霉素 (qīngméisù)
• 青面獠牙 (qīngmiànliáoyá)
• 青苗

• 青年 (qīngnián)
• 青年节
• 青鸟
• 青皮 (qīngpí)
• 青纱帐
• 青山绿水
• 青少年
• 青史 (qīngshǐ)
• 青丝
• 青饲料
• 青蒜
• 青苔 (qīngtái)
• 青天
• 青天白日
• 青天霹雳
• 青田石
• 青铜 (qīngtóng)
• 青铜器
• 青铜器时代
• 青蛙 (qīngwā)
• 青魆魆, 青虚虚
• 青眼
• 青杨
• 青衣 (qīngyī)
• 青油油
• 青鱼
• 青郁
• 青云 (qīngyún)
• 青云直上
• 青肿
• 青贮
• 青壮年
• 清堂瓦舍

See also

• 藍, 蓝
• 蒼, 苍
• 紺, 绀
• 碧

Usage notes

The meaning for blue and black of "青" is more commonly used in classical Chinese, while in modern Chinese, the meaning for green is more common, for example, "青山綠水/青山緑水" (hill and water green in colour), "青蘋果/青苹果" (green apple). However, there are still some expressions for the meaning of blue, e.g. "青天" (blue sky), "青出於藍/青出于蓝" (literal meaning: blue colour extracts from a plant of blue dye. Extended meaning and use: for saying someone performed better than his/her teacher).

In Cantonese the use of "青" to mean black is still used in circumstances were to use "黑" would be inauspicious as it is a homophone of "乞" or beggar, so for example "黑衣" used to describe clothing would be a homophone of both beggar and a beggar's garment.

References

• (Min Nan) Taiwan Min Nan Common Words Dictionary (臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典)

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Japanese

Kanji

青

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• On: せい (sei), しょう (shō)
• Kun: あお (ao), あおい (青い, aoi)

Compounds

• 青海原
• 青馬
• 青黴
• 青桐
• 青草
• 青臭い
• 青写真
• 青筋
• 青空
• 青田
• 青大将
• 青菜に塩
• 青二才
• 青虫
• 青物

• 青果 (seika)
• 青雲の志
• 青眼
• 青酸
• 青山
• 青磁
• 青春
• 青天
• 青天の霹靂
• 青天白日
• 青銅
• 青年
• 青嵐
• 青龍刀
• 刺青 (いれずみ, irezumi)

Etymology 1

awo → ao. Possibly sawo → awo → ao.

Pronunciation

• Standard Accent: あ​お (Atamadaka), IPA^(key): /aꜜ.o/, [ä˦.o̞˨]

• あお

  (file)

Noun

青 (hiragana あお, romaji ao, historical hiragana あを)

1. blue
2. the black, bluish color of a horse's hair; also, such a horse
   • 1603–1604, Nippo Jisho (page 39)

     Auo. アヲ (青) 馬の毛色で, 全体に黒くて青みがあり, 両耳の内側に多少白いところのあるもの. この部分の毛も他の部分と同じようにすっかり黒い時には, Curo(黒)と呼ばれる.

3. green (traffic-light green is referred to as ao, as are plant leaves.)

Related terms

• 青 (あお)い (aoi)

Etymology 2

sawo → sao. s- is often taken as a prefix to avoid vowel clusters, but it was probably the older form. Seen also in same and shine.

Noun

青 (hiragana さお, romaji sao, historical hiragana さを)

1. blue

Derived terms

• 真青 (まさお) (masao)
• 真 (ま)っ青 (さお) (massao)

Etymology 3

Noun

青 (hiragana しい, romaji shī)

1. a beast that looks like a weasel, and is said to have lived in present Fukuoka and Yamaguchi
2. a beast that looks like a wolf, and is said to have appeared in Mt. Yoshino

References

• 1980 [1603–1604], Tadao Doi, Hōyaku Nippo Jisho (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 4-0008-0021-3:

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Korean

Hanja

青 (cheong)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 청 (revised: cheong, McCune-Reischauer: ch'ŏng, Yale: cheng)

• Name (hangeul): 푸를()

1. blue; green

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Vietnamese

Han character

青 (thanh, thênh, xanh)

1. This entry needs a definition. Please add one, then remove {{defn}}.

References

• Nom Foundation