Russian Rainbow - part 1

[solito.livejournal.com]

Let's look at the usage of color names in the model "personal pronoun" + "to be (conjugated)" + color name applied to people. In this construction some color names can acquire new nuances. These nuances sometimes are quite obvious in a certain context. However, some of the meanings can be used without clear explanation in the context thus creating a difficult situation for a foreigner learning Russian. Let me give you some examples:

БЕЛЫЙ - WHITE
Он белый - He is a (member of the) White Guard (or White Army warrior).
Белый человек сказал - будет дождь - The white man said - it will rain. [Thanks to night_sun_dial for this addition]
Ты весь белый, кто тебя так напугал? - You are completely palid, who scared you so much?

ЧЁРНЫЙ - BLACK
Он чёрный (slangy) - He is from Southern republics of ex-USSR (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaydzhan, small nations from the Caucasus mountains). [This usage is very derogatory, usually it stresses speaker's nationalist views. There is an extreme form which is a nasty insult - "черножопый" - literally "black ass". A neutral word would be "кавказец" or an awful new bureaucratic construction "лицо кавказской национальности". Note that the meaning of the word "кавказец" (person from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaydzhan, small nations from the Caucasus mountains) differs significantly from the English word Caucasian.]
Note: "He is black" (i.e. of African origin) is translated "Он - негр". This translation is absolutely neutral.

КОРИЧНЕВЫЙ - BROWN
Он - коричневый. [Not used widely] He has fascist views, he is a fascist.

СЕРЫЙ - GRAY
Он какой-то серый - He is kind of insipid, uninteresting, banal
Он совершенно серый - He is totally dim, uneducated

КРАСНЫЙ - RED
Он красный - He is communist or He is from the Red Army.
После сауны он был совсем красный - He was completely red after the sauna.

ЗЕЛЁНЫЙ - GREEN
Он еще зелёный (Он такой зелёный) - He is still a fresh hand, he is verdant.
Зелёные борются за чистый мир - The greens are striving for a cleaner world. [Thanks to g0mez for this addition]

ГОЛУБОЙ - PALE BLUE
Он голубой - He is gay. He is queer. He is a (male) homosexual.
Note: the usage is very neutral, is not tabooed at all, and probably is the only way to say it in a vivid and friendly manner. It can't be used toward female homosexual persons, in this case say Она - лесбиянка. The latter form has a very slight derogatory shade - or at least can be considered as such by some people. See also below "розовый"

РОЗОВЫЙ - PINK
Она оказалась розовой - She turned out to be a lesbian.
[Not widely used; not having derogatory shade] [Thanks to shellesie for this addition]

P.S. In the second part I plan to review the usage of color names in some set expressions.
P.P.S. All corrections and additions are welcome.

Comments

[shellesie.livejournal.com]

"зеленый" can be also used in such context as "Он позеленел от зависти (от боли)" - He became green because of envy (because of pain).

And also we should mention "pink" - розовый - when we have already spoken about "голубой" :) You can meet "розовая" in a meaning "lesbian", but it is used more rarely than "голубой" as "gay"

PS What an interesting job you did! ;)

[solito.livejournal.com]

Ufff... I tried to do my best :) In fact I am just publishing here answers to the questions of one young and sprightly American who rarely drops me few lines... My answers and some additional comments as well.

[lifetraveller.livejournal.com]

"серый" also means "sad", "gloomy"

[solito.livejournal.com]

You mean - speaking about a person? Could you give an example in Russian?

[lifetraveller.livejournal.com]

For example,
"Что-то ты сегодня какой-то серый....Что-нибудь случилось?"

[solito.livejournal.com]

Mmm... Sounds a bit unusual for me - I would simply say "угрюмый, мрачный". Though I am no pretending to be an academic source :)

[shellesie.livejournal.com]

ok, and also "серый от страха", grey because of fear )

[g0mez.livejournal.com]

зеленый also means greenpeace (or similar organization) member or supporter.

[solito.livejournal.com]

Right - this one I simply forgot to include.

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

Голубой is one I picked up fairly early. *grins* Also... isn't there a diaresis on the second Е in Зеленый? I know sometimes that's omitted, so I'm just trying to make sure.

[solito.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is - and it is usually omitted in the contemporary written language. I will correct it because the main target for this post is our foreign readers.

[solito.livejournal.com]

It took me some time to find ё on my keyboard - it is used so rarely that I forgot where it is. All is corrected now.

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

*laughs* yeah. I had to say "е with a diaresis" instead of "ё" because I'm still not quite sure where my ё key is.

[ex-my3bikaht259.livejournal.com]

it is above "Tab" key on russian keyboard layout :)

[night-sun-dial.livejournal.com]

БЕЛЫЙ means innocent as well. "Белым остаться хочет" -- He doesn't want to be guilty. There is a russian verb -- обелять -- to avoid a sentence. Also, БЕЛЫЙ is Caucasian and aristocrat.

[solito.livejournal.com]

Белый - Caucasian - yep! It corresponds completely to the model described here. Белый и пушистый - may be...

I don't agree with most of this

[oryx_and_crake]

"Белым остаться хочет"

I don't agree. You can say "он хочет остаться чистеньким", but not "белым". "Обелять" is not "to avoid a sentence", it means to prove one's innocence (not necessarily in the court).
Белый is not аристократ, it's either a member of the White Army (historical concept) or as a part of expression "белоэмигрант" (White Russian emigree, one of the people who fled Russia after the revolution of 1917 for political reasons). Not all of these people were aristocrats.

Re: I don't agree with most of this

[night-sun-dial.livejournal.com]

Чистенький = беленький. About aristocrat... I am wrong may be... Just, there is a strong association of white color and aristocrats. Белая кость (white bone), белоручка (white hands), and белая армия (White Army) as well.

Re: I don't agree with most of this

[oryx_and_crake]

Чистенький = беленький

I don't agree that these words are interchangeable. Sorry.

"there is a strong association of white color and aristocrats."

There might be, but, again, it does not mean that they are one and the same.

Re: I don't agree with most of this

[oryx_and_crake]

For example, cossacks were part of White Army, and cossacks were not any kind of aristocrats, they were peasants. Also, there were privates and lower-rank officers, do you think they all were counts and princes? I don't think so.

[ex-my3bikaht259.livejournal.com]

AAAnd!

"Беленькая" - "vodka" ;-)

[solito.livejournal.com]

This one is more for the part 2. I already planned it there.

[oryx_and_crake]

And I think this article will be incomplete without the joke about Vasily Ivanovich (Chapaev) and Pet'ka (those are Red Army soldiers, popular characters in a series of jokes, based on some true historical persons and facts from the Civil war of 1918).

- Василий Иванович, белого привезли!
- Сколько ящиков?

- Vassily Ivanovich, they brought a white! (meaning an enemy soldier, a White Army one, a captive)
- How many cases? (Vassily Ivanovich's only thought is about drink, so he understands "white" as in "white vine")

yay!!

[giggle-chick.livejournal.com]

this is absolutely fantastic! thanks for putting this up!

[-alex-dee-.livejournal.com]

>Он белый - He is a (member of the) White Guard (or White Army warrior).
hm, it is very-very rarely... it is uses like "белые" (if you about russian army in civil war 1917-1921) *and "красные" too*

>Он - коричневый. [Not used widely] He has fascist views, he is a fascist.
where do you hear this meaning ??

**also, you can add голубая кровь (light blue blood)**

[solito.livejournal.com]

1) Yes, it is used more frequently in plural, like "Белые заняли село" - I will add a note
2) What do you mean by "where"? In the spoken language. There is a note that it is not used widely, but the color comes from the fascist uniform in Germany.
See one of the usage examples here:

http://www.svami.info/number/generation/?ID=2045
>Прекрасно живем, - визжала захлебываясь от оплаченного восторга "коричневая" пресса.

or here

http://www.hro.org/actions/nazi/2004/07/23.php?printv=1
>Предыстория этой драмы такова: долгое время Орел не был красно-коричневым городом. Красным — да, а вот коричневым — нет. Но летом прошлого года общественный воздух стал портиться, русские наци активизировались и тут.
or here

http://nopasaran.hrworld.ru/problem/
>В этой ситуации, когда коричневая опасность в России (а именно в коричневую форму были одеты штурмовики Национал - социалистической рабочей партии Германии, а потом коричневый стал официальным "политическим" цветом Третьего Рейха) все более становится реальной
There are more examples like that.

The example that I gave you reminds one more color - желтый, in "желтая пресса".

3) Голубая кровь - is already planned in the "set expressions" part. Whatever, thank you very much!

[sibir-muzhyk.livejournal.com]

коричневый settles the color for fascism as well as красный for commy.

Also, you can add белая кость (white bone). :-)
Both голубая кровь (light blue blood) and белая кость (white bone) stand for the aristocracy.

[oryx_and_crake]

blue blood is a set expression for aristocracy in English, too.

[eez.livejournal.com]

I've heard "красно-коричневый" meaning the same as "коричневый" as you put it (a fascist).
This is sometimes used in news, on TV. Never heard it in colloquial speech.

[solito.livejournal.com]

I would agree that "красно-коричневый" is (unfortunately) much more frequent in the language. I think it should be underlined in the post. But it is however slightly different - it is not fascist, but communist-nationalist. Though both words are really very close to each other.

It is not used in the colloquial speech - well, it depends a lot on the speaker :) I would suspect Valeria Novodvorskaya likes to use this word everywhere :)