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Started by karne, 10 January, 2003, 07:19:51 AM

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JayzusB.Christ

The ancient Greeks didn't have a word for 'blue', and in fact classified colours in a completely different way from us moderns.  Or did we do that one already?
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

TordelBack

#1246
Lots of cultures classify colours differently (look at Irish!), but the idea that Greeks (and others) didn't recognise or even see blue* because they didnt have a specific word for it winds me up.  I'd direct anyone to look at Minoan painting,  one of the key cultural influences in the proto-Greek world: they certainly used a lot of something they didn't perceive as a colour.


*Not that that's what Jayzus said.

JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: TordelBack on 08 February, 2018, 10:53:58 PM


*Not that that's what Jayzus said.

Absolutely not; I've been researching it extensively while researching colour theory to teach my art class.  Russians consider light blue a completely different colour from darker blues, and as such do far better than we would when matching shades of blue in tests.
But then, we don't call red 'light red' when it's mixed with white either, do we?

Still hard to get the head around a sunny country not having a word for the colour of a clear sky. 

Also, bees see UV 'landing lights' on flower petals that we can't see, and garden spiders use UV to weave fake versions  into their webs.  I may well have thrown that fact into this thread before; I love the fact that miniature equivalents of Wile E Coyote's painted tunnels exist in the insect / arachnid world.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Proudhuff

Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 08 February, 2018, 11:25:08 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 08 February, 2018, 10:53:58 PM


*Not that that's what Jayzus said.
Still hard to get the head around a sunny country not having a word for the colour of a clear sky. 

one the 'only' colour on their flag...
DDT did a job on me

Proudhuff

Fact: American hinges are horizontal not vertical!
DDT did a job on me

JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: Proudhuff on 10 February, 2018, 11:16:41 AM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 08 February, 2018, 11:25:08 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 08 February, 2018, 10:53:58 PM


*Not that that's what Jayzus said.
Still hard to get the head around a sunny country not having a word for the colour of a clear sky. 

one the 'only' colour on their flag...

To be fair, I'd imagine the modern Greeks have a word for blue.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Tjm86

.... and we Brits have a word for 'throwing someone out a window.'

Proudhuff

New thread alert!
DDT did a job on me

The Legendary Shark

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