青

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

• Index:Chinese radical/靑
• 倩, 凊, 啨, 埥, 婧, 崝, 情, 掅, 清, 猜, 晴, 腈, 棈, 𭴼, 睛, 碃, 精, 綪(𬘬), 蜻, 請(请), 錆(锖), 郬, 寈, 菁, 箐, 圊

• 靑 (Orthodox form in Kangxi dictionary, preferred form in Korean hanja)

• 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

Historical forms of the character 青
Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Ideogrammic compound (會意) : 生 (“growth of plants”) + 丹 (“cinnabar”). Cinnabar was used for dyeing, and by extension, came to imply “color” in general, giving the combined meaning “color of growing plants” → “blue-green”.

In the modern glyph, the top component is reduced to 龶, and the bottom component resembles the unrelated 月 (“moon”).

The second-round simplified form of the character is based on the calligraphic form of the character.

青

1. blue-green; blue (of sky, stone etc.); green (of grass, plants, mountain etc.)
2. blue-green-coloured items
3. black (of hair, cloth, silk thread etc.)
4. luxuriant; lush; exuberant
5. young; adolescent
6. east
7. spring
8. green grass
9. ripening crops
10. Short for 青海 (Qīnghǎi, “Qinghai Province”).
11. A surname​.

The meaning for “blue” and “black” is more commonly used in Classical Chinese, while in modern Chinese, the meaning for “green” is more common. For example, 青山綠水 (“hill and water green in colour”), 青蘋果 (“green apple”). However, there are still some expressions for the meaning of blue, e.g. 青天 (“blue sky”), 青出於藍 (“blue comes from indigo; someone performing better than their teacher”)

In Cantonese the use of 青 to mean “black” is still used in circumstances where to use 黑 (hak1) would be inauspicious, as it is a near-homophone of 乞 (hat1, “beggar”). For example, 黑衣 (hak1 ji1) used to describe clothing would be a near-homophone of both beggar and a beggar's garment.

• 藍／蓝 (lán)
• 蒼／苍 (cāng)
• 紺／绀 (gàn)
• 碧 (bì)

• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A04499
• “青”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database), 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 靑)

1. blue, bluish-green
2. immature, unripe, young
3. publication, record
4. east
5. cyan

• Go-on: しょう (shō, Jōyō, uncommon)^{←しやう (syau, historical)}
• Kan-on: せい (sei, Jōyō)
• Sō-on: しい (shii)
• Kun: あお (ao, 青, Jōyō)^{←あを (awo, historical)}; あおい (aoi, 青い, Jōyō)^{←あをい (awoi, historical)}; さお (sao, 青)^{←さを (sawo, historical)}
• Nanori: お (o); きよ (kiyo); はる (haru)

/sawo/ (uncertain, may be compound as opposed to root) → /awo/ → /ao/

From Old Japanese, ultimately from Proto-Japonic *awo.[1]

Appears as the latter part in older compounds with an -s- infix or prefix. It is unclear if this leading /s/ is indicative of an earlier form (sawo), or if this was an addition for euphony to avoid vowel clusters, or for other reasons. This /s/ is also seen in 雨 (ame, “rain”, becoming same in old compounds) and 稲 (ine, “rice”, becoming shine in old compounds).

Given that this /s/ only ever appears interstitially, and given the semantics, this /s/ may be cognate with Korean interfix -ᄉ- (-s-) used to mark possession; compare German -s-.

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) あ​お [áꜜò] (Atamadaka – [1])[2]
  • IPA^(key): [a̠o̞]

  • Audio

    (file)

• (Kyoto) あお [àóꜜ][3]

青 (shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 靑, hiragana あお, rōmaji ao, historical hiragana あを)

1. blue
   1. one of three primary colours
   2. a shade of blue to blue green
2. Short for 青信号 (ao-shingō): green (traffic light color, as the color of plants)

   Antonym: 赤 (aka)

3. the black, bluish color of a horse's hair; also, such a horse
   • 1603–1604, Nippo Jisho (page 39)[4]

     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.

   Synonym: 青毛 (aoge)

4. (card games) Short for 青短, 青丹 (aotan): one of the three hanafuda cards bearing a blue 短冊 (tanzaku, “narrow card used for poetry”); a 役 (yaku) of the three aotan cards, worth 3 points
5. (card games) a blue card in 天正カルタ (Tenshō karuta)
6. Short for 青本 (aohon): This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
7. Short for 青銭 (aosen): This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

• 青 (あお)は藍 (あい)より出 (い)でて藍 (あい)より青 (あお)し (ao wa ai yori idete ai yori aoshi)

青 (shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 靑, hiragana あお, rōmaji ao-, historical hiragana あを)

1. unripe, young

青 (shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 靑, hiragana あお, rōmaji Ao, historical hiragana あを)

1. a female given name
2. a surname

From Middle Chinese 青 (MC t͡sʰeŋ).

• On’yomi: Kan’on
  • IPA^(key): [se̞ː]

青 (hiragana せい, rōmaji sei)

1. the color blue

青 (shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 靑, hiragana せい, rōmaji Sei)

1. a female given name
2. a surname

Unknown. The reading might be an obscure term from Old Japanese or dialect. The use of the character 青 arises from its 宋音 (sōon, “Song-dynasty pronunciation”).[5]

• On’yomi
  • IPA^(key): [ɕiː]

青 (shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 靑, hiragana しい, rōmaji shii)

1. (rare, archaic, mythology) a beast that looks like a weasel, and is said to have lived in present-day Fukuoka and Yamaguchi prefectures
2. (rare, archaic, mythology) a beast that looks like a wolf, and is said to have appeared around Mount Yoshino

青 (eumhun 푸를 청 (pureul cheong))

1. Alternative form of 靑 (“blue; green”)

青: Hán Nôm readings: thanh

1. green
2. blue

• Nom Foundation