英語同義詞解析:When Talking About Black

編者按：在中國文化中，黑色有時候也是用烏這個字來代替的，烏黑本來就是同義詞的轉換，來看一看英語怎麼解釋黑這個詞。

When talking about colors, both "烏" (wū) and "黑" (hēi) seem to mean "black".

Look at two interesting words :

烏龍茶 (wūlóngchá), oolong tea, literally, it means "black dragon tea".

黑龍江 (hēilóngjiāng), a river/province in north-east of China, literally, it means "black dragon river"

Both 烏龍 and 黑龍 mean "black dragon". What is the difference between them?

In modern Chinese, 黑 (hēi) is the primary word for 'black' (noun or adjective) ;

烏(wū) is used for 'dark' or 'blackish' only in some fixed phrases , idioms and names. For examples:

黑髮 (hēifà) black hair

黑夜 (hēiyè) night

黑板 (hēibǎn) blackboard

黑馬 (hēimǎ) dark horse (fig. unexpected winner)

烏鴉 (wūyā) crow

烏龍茶 (wūlóngchá) oolong tea

烏雲 (wūyún) dark clouds

烏龜 (wūguī) tortoise

公眾號：HanFan漢風