Why is it a Blue Light, Not Green? | Focus #147

Have you ever wondered why a green light is called 'blue'? Upon reflection, there are several things that are green but are expressed as 'blue'.

The origin of this Japanese mystery has various theories, one of which dates back to the Heian period.

During the Heian period, there were only words for 'red', 'white', 'black', and 'blue' to describe colors, and 'green' did not exist. Therefore, 'blue' was used as a word to describe 'fresh and youthful things'. In the Kamakura period, they began to distinguish between blue and green, but even now 'red', 'white', 'black', and 'blue' are special colors and can become adjectives as they are. (Green cannot be 'greenish' but 'green-colored').

Since green originally derives from blue, the reverse expression of blue as green does not occur.

As explained earlier, in Japanese, green things are sometimes expressed as blue. Perhaps related to this, 'blue' is often used to mean 'young' or 'inexperienced'.

On the other hand, how is it in the English-speaking world?

For example, what does 'you're green' mean? This is an idiomatic expression meaning 'inexperienced or young'. It may be confusing at first because it's different from Japanese, but Japanese has its unique nuances.

The expression of colors in Japanese has unique nuances due to historical backgrounds. Referring to green as blue is one of them. Knowing these characteristics might bring a new perspective to our everyday language use.

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