# obscene, pornographic, X-rated - colour



## Messquito

In Chinese, 黃色(yellow) is what we use to refer to "pornographic" stuff:
黃色書刊(yellow books)=pornographic books(Playboy, Meat...)
黃色笑話(yellow jokes)=sexual jokes

In English, there is _blue films_, which means "pornographic movies"

I'm wondering if you have in you language a colour that denotes "sexual/erotic" when modifying a noun like "movie, humour, book," etc.?


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## Radioh

Black-minded people watch black movies and read black books.


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## Dymn

In Catalan and Spanish the colour is green: _acudits verds / chistes verdes _'green jokes'.


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## apmoy70

In Greek it's *«ροζ»* [ɾoz] --> _pink_
*«Ροζ»* [ɾoz] (neut.) < Fr. rose


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## JustKate

Actually, in English "blue" is seldom used any longer for films that are actually pornographic, though I think it used to be. The adjective now refers to things that are indecent or titillating - so not quite as extreme as porn.


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## 810senior

We Japanese use the pink colour for it, as in ピンク映画(pink film).


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## ThomasK

I cannot see an association with a colour in Dutch, certainly not with books. Would you have some idea of why yellow has been chosen in Chinese?


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## Messquito

ThomasK said:


> I cannot see an association with a colour in Dutch, certainly not with books. Would you have some idea of why yellow has been chosen in Chinese?


It is now really hard to figure out where it came from, but there are a bunch of theories:

1. The Yellow Union: It was about a strike in France in 1887, where the firm owner bribed the Yellow Union to prevent the workers from going on strike. The workers were provoked by the betrayal and angrily smashed the windows of the union. The union then replaced them with yellow paper. Since them, people started to label the Yellow Union as "*unpresentable/disreputable*," which is just like the porn industry.

2. The Yellow Book: A British magazine published in 1894, which contains contents considered scurrilous by some. A famous Oscar Wilde was seen holding an issue of The Yellow Book (which turned out to be a French novel with yellow cover), when arrested with *homosexual charges*. Since then, people has been connecting yellow with "dirty, sexual, etc."

3. Yellow Journalism/Yellow Press: At the end of the 19th century, New York World and New York Journal were being competitive in the news industry by tantalising readers with *vulgar* comics contents, among which is "The Yellow Kid," which "yellow journalism" was originated from. (a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers)

4. Orpiment(雌黃): orpiment is a highly toxic yellow substance used in ancient China as a correction fluid, kind of like the white-out today, except that it's yellow. Owing to its use, 雌黃 was used as a term to mean "something you *don't really want to say out loud*". So then the colour yellow came to be linked to "sex," which is something we are shy from talking.

5. Yellow race(黃種人): because Chinese people has "yellow" skin, so "yellow" is linked with "*skin*". And obviously a porn is where we could see skin all the time.

6. Yellow card/Yellow ticket/Yellow passport/жёлтый билет: a yellow card was a personal identification document of a *prostitute* in the Russian Empire.

I personally don't believe in 1. and 2., and I doubt 3. 4. is possible but I think 5. and 6. are the more practical ones. We have this phrase "掃黃(sweep the yellow)", meaning wiping out/cracking down on prostitution.


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## ThomasK

What an amazing list of plausible explanations! Great information!


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## SuperXW

Messquito said:


> It is now really hard to figure out where it came from, but there are a bunch of theories:
> ...


Wow! I thought it just refered to the color of the skin (theory 6). Thanks for the great information!

I am also amazed that there are so many different colors refering to pornography in different countries.
Why black? (Because the mind is "dark"?)
Why blue? Why green??


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## Welsh_Sion

If something is considered 'for adults only' such as a film, it would (perhaps a little dated) be referred to as 'a *blue* movie' in English. In Cymraeg/Welsh we'd refer to something of an obscene nature as being '*coch*' (i.e. '*red*')

Now, I read somewhere that the English who frequented Chinese brothels found them decorated in a *blue* colour and hence the use of the term in that language (but cf their location in '*the red light district*'). Did the Welsh frequent different coloured brothels? 

And what colour (if any) do you use in your language for obscene things?


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## symposium

Hi! In Italian we don't have a colour for that, but we occasionaly use the expression "a luci rosse" ("red lights") to describe something that is for adults only: "film a luci rosse" ("red lights movie") = a pornographic movie.


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## Penyafort

In Spain, if any, I guess it'd be red too. But no specific colour either. 

Rather than a colour, it'd be a shape. The eldest generations of Spaniards, in those times when there was only one TV channel, were used to see two diamonds on screen whenever a film was meant for adults.


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## jazyk

I don't think we have a color for that in Brazil.


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## Dymn

Penyafort said:


> In Spain, if any, I guess it'd be red too. But no specific colour either.


Maybe green? Like "_chistes verdes_" ("green jokes"), "_viejo verde_" ("green old man"), but it may be limited to those collocations. I don't know if "_pelis verdes_" ("green film") would be understood...


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## apmoy70

In Greek we use a colour for "soft" adult films, it's *«ροζ»* [ɾɔz] (neut. indecl.) --> _pink_ < Fr. rose.

We do not associate X rated adult films with a colour, pornographic films are *A* rated, from «*Α*κατάλληλη» [a.kaˈta.li.li] (feminine because film in Greek is a fem. noun and adjectives take the gender of the noun they're modifying) --> _improper, inappropriate_ < Classical adj. *«ἀκατάλληλος, -λος, -λον»** ăkătắllēlŏs* (masc. & fem.), *ăkătắllēlŏn* (neut.) < Classical alpha privatum *«ἀ-» ă-* + Classical prefix and preposition *«κατά» kătắ* + Classical adj. *«ἀλλήλους» ăllḗlous* (found only in pl.) --> _each other_ < repeated adj. *«ἄλλος» ắllŏs* (< *ἄλλο-αλλο). 

Naughty jokes are *«πικάντικα»* [piˈkan.di.ka] (neut. nom. pl.), *«πικάντικο»* [piˈkan.di.kɔ] (neut.) in sing. --> _spicy, racy_ < It. piccante.


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## Penyafort

Dymn said:


> Maybe green? Like "_chistes verdes_" ("green jokes"), "_viejo verde_" ("green old man"), but it may be limited to those collocations. I don't know if "_pelis verdes_" ("green film") would be understood...



Indeed! That's a very interesting point. Yes, if any colour were to be associated with obscenity here, that'd be _green_.

However, as you say, I also think that it would only work these days in already established collocations. In the past, it must have been more productive though. In Catalan too, as the DCVB shows (_novel·la verda, converses verdetes..._)


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## Rallino

In Turkey, adult movies used to have a red dot to on the bottom right of the screen. They don't put it anymore. But the expression "kırmızı noktalı" (red dotted) is a thing, albeit very rarely used.


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## Perseas

Welsh_Sion said:


> […] '*coch*' (i.e. '*red*')


A cognate, I suppose, with the Greek "κόκκινο" ['koçino] for "red".


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## Welsh_Sion

Said to be for Latin, 'coccus', Perseas.

*coch* 

[Crn. _coch, cough_, bnth. Llad. Diw. _coccum_ ‘the berry of the scarlet oak’, Gr. κόκκος]

And then ultimately, from Greek.

welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/gpc/gpc.html 'coch'

Latin 'cc' is ofen 'ch' in Welsh.


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## Perseas

@Welsh_Sion
Yes, they are all cognates. I found this in wiktionary for "coch":
_From Middle Welsh coch, from Proto-Brythonic *kox, from Latin coccum (“scarlet berry”), from Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos, “berry”). Cognate with Cornish coch, cough (“red”)._


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## Welsh_Sion

Perseas, that wikitonary piece is of course a direct translation of my reference from GPC (see above).

Note however - and something I learnt a few years ago to my cost - 'gwin coch' (Welsh = 'red wine') is not the same as Breton 'gwin coc'h'!


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## ThomasK

Spontaneously I do not associate a colour with that kind of movies. The light in the red-light district are pink (_*roze*_), but the neighbourhood is called de *rosse buurt*, something like "the ginger neighbourhood.". I think green would refer to envy - and to ecologism of course...


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## amikama

In Hebrew it's blue: *סרט כחול* ("blue movie").

A related expression is *ראש כחול* ("blue head") = dirty mind.


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## kaverison

In Tamil, we don't have the concept of red light district or blue film, so we literally translate those. 
red light district = சிவப்பு விளக்கு பகுதி - sivappu viLakku pakuthi
blue film = நீலப் படம் - niilap padam


But we tend to use *Green *to refer to obscenity. 

பச்சை - pachchai  = Green  

like in 

(பச்சை,) பச்சையா பேசறான்* = talks Green(ish)
(* literary expression - பச்சையாக பேசுகிறான்)

பச்சையா சொல்லணும்னா* - pacchaiyaa sollanumNaa = to speak openly/explicitly/raw
(* when writing in literary language - , பச்சையாக சொல்ல வேண்டும் என்றால்
)

பச்சைப் புளுகன் - big liar


பச்சை - pacchai = Green literally refers to being raw or explicit, thus applies to situation where there is no filter/cover.

(Note: பச்சை also has the meaning of young and that leads to other words to refer to naive etc like in English..)


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## DearPrudence

Penyafort said:


> Rather than a colour, it'd be a shape. The eldest generations of Spaniards, in those times when there was only one TV channel, were used to see two diamonds on screen whenever a film was meant for adults.





Rallino said:


> In Turkey, adult movies used to have a red dot to on the bottom right of the screen. They don't put it anymore. But the expression "kırmızı noktalı" (red dotted) is a thing, albeit very rarely used.


In *French from France*, I guess it would be the same, except that our X-rated films featured a white square: "*un carré blanc*", which only people older than 20 will remember (it changed in 1998).

Otherwise, we have the adjective "*rose*" ("*pink*") but its use is somehow restricted to:
"*téléphone rose*"
"*Minitel rose*" (for those old enough to remember what a Minitel was!)

PS: actually, "blue" doesn't have any connotation in French and they translated "A Whole New World" from Aladdin by "Ce rêve bleu" ("this blue dream") for some reason :-/


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## momai

Dymn said:


> ... "_viejo verde_" ("green old man")...


Wow! We have exactly the same one in Syria نفسو خضرا an old man with green soul.


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## ThomasK

Strange to us. We associate green with unripe (and jealousy): hij is nog groen achter zijn oren (he's still green behind his ears [_why there??? ;-_)])


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## Penyafort

ThomasK said:


> Strange to us. We associate green with unripe (and jealousy): hij is nog groen achter zijn oren (he's still green behind his ears [_why there??? ;-_)])



In Spanish, green for unripe or inexperienced also exists. But this is one of the subtleties of having two verbs for 'to be', ser and estar.

_Es muy verde _(Is very green, using the verb ser) - Applied to a joke, we mean it's very obscene.
_Está muy verde _(Is very green, using the verb estar) - Applied to a guy, we mean he's very inexperienced in the subject.


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## Olaszinhok

It sounds strange to me as well. In Italian, the colour green can be associated with growth, hope and also something young or unripe


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## Welsh_Sion

Green as inexperienced.

Welsh - *glaslanc* n.m. ( = glas + llanc, '_glas' _+ 'male youth') = greenhorn, rookie.

Now why did I not translate *glas*? Because, although today we tend to have one-to-one colour words with the equivalent English language spectrum (we've been neighbours for centuries, y'know …), and thus *glas* is essentially 'blue', it is rather a chameleon (if you excuse the colour allusion) in Welsh.

So, *glas* can mean 'blue', 'green', 'grey' or 'silver', depending on the context. And combinations of *glas + …* will also display equal variants (vis-à-vis other languages), so it's not always 'the same colour' as 'blue' .

But colour terms are another thread from this one …


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