Black colour in Vietnamese
In English, we just have the word “black” to call all the things, animals are in black colour.
In Vietnamese, there are some special ways to call something in black:
black horse: ngựa đen
black dog: chó mực
black cat: mèo mun
Mèo mun
black chicken: gà quạ
the dust of smoke clings on the wall: bồ hóng
black ink: mực tàu
black hair: tóc nhung, tóc huyền
black eye: mắt huyền
black cuttlefish: mực xạ
black buffalo: trâu mốc
black trousers: quần thâm:
Some Vietnamese idioms
cột nhà cháy: (burned column of a house) – a funny way to call black skin
tóc xanh: (green hair) – a way to call the people still young
Besides, when using the word “đen” to call someone or something, it’s usually has the bad meaning:
sổ đen: a book use to report name of bad people
xã hội đen: criminal world, demimonde.
vận đen: misfortune, unlucky
đen đủi: unlucky
dân đen: the people who have no power, no social standing in the country
đen đỏ or đỏ đen: Gambling.
web đen: websites that have the bad content, usually about debauchery.
tim đen: something in mind that you don’t want the other know.
rùa đen: the people who did the bad things
chợ đen: illegal market
tối đen: very dark
đen bạc: in this sentence: ăn ở đen bạc, it has the meaning of ungratefulness, But in the sentence đen bạc đỏ tình: it’s not the above meaning, but that is unlucky in this field (gambling), but lucky in the other (love).
And when mention about the level, Vietnamese has a lot of levels of “đen” (black colour):
đen bóng, đen giòn, đen kịt, đen nhánh, đen sì, đen thủi, đen thui. Đen tuyền, đen thắm, tím đen, đen ngắt, đen thẳm, đen thùi lùi, đen óng: usually used to call somebody or something’s skin color.
đen ngòm, Đen nghịt: very black, the dark,
con sông đen ngòm – the river is very black, very dusty.
but đen nghịt is also đông nghịt: used to call a place that have too much people.
đen tối: use to call the bad thinking of somebody.(ex: “tư tưởng đen tối”) It was also used to call the dark period in history, there were a lot of terrorisms, bloody massacres.
đen đét is not a color, that’s the sound when using hand or rod slap on skin
But when you double this word
đen đen: It mean just a little black color, a light black.