# Urdu: colors



## lcfatima

De we have a thread for colors?

I was reading and came across this in English:



> Nowadays brocade is being produced on the power looms for its wide-scale production for the market. Several kannis or little wooden shuttles of different colors are used for a single weft line of the fabric. Up to 50 colours could be worked into one shawl made of the jamawar cloth. The most popular colours being zard, sufed, mushki, ferozi, ingari, uda gulnar and kirmiz.



zard: orangish-yellow
safaid: white
mashki:musk, dark brown which is almost black
firozi: turqoise
ingari: ?
uda gulnaar: ?
kirmiz: I am going to guess crimson red?

Can you fill in the colors I don't know and also suggest some other useful colors that one might hear/read, beyond our classroom colors neela, peela, kaala, etc. I am not finding them in the dictionary except mashki.

What color is fauzi/fauzia?


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## BP.

lcfatima said:


> De we have a thread for colors?
> 
> I was reading and came across this in English:
> 
> 
> 
> zard: orangish-yellow
> safaid: white
> mashki:musk, dark brown which is almost black
> firozi: turqoise
> ingari: ?
> uda gulnaar: ?
> kirmiz: I am going to guess crimson red?
> 
> Can you fill in the colors I don't know and also suggest some other useful colors that one might hear/read, beyond our classroom colors neela, peela, kaala, etc. I am not finding them in the dictionary except mashki.
> 
> What color is fauzi/fauzia?



Some remarks about your list:
zard: orangish-yellow
safaid: white
mashki:musk, dark brown which is almost black
firozi: turqoise
ingari: ? could this be angaarii: fire-coloured. But which colour if fire?
uda gulnaar: ? _uudaa _is purple and _gulnar_'s the name of a red flower. Can it be that these are in fact two coulours you're talking about?
kirmiz: I am going to guess crimson red? qirmizii-قرمزی-. Yes, crimson.

Some colours I can think of:
violet: _banafshii_-بنفشی
mauve: _kaasnii_-کاسنی
purple: _jaamunii_-جامنی. Also _uudaa_-اودا
maroon: _3unnaabii_-عٌنابی.

I wonder how would have they come up with colour names if there were no flowers or fruits around!


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## lcfatima

banafshi is like banafsaji in Arabic? And I suppose 3unaabi is grapes?


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## panjabigator

How about آبی for نیلا?


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## BP.

panjabigator said:


> How about آبی for نیلا?


That works. We use _aabii maa2il_-آبی مائل- however, as I remember mentioning before.


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## panjabigator

I remember you mentioning it to, now that I think of it. But would you use آبی over نیلا or is there a slight shade/context difference?


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## Koozagar

And then of course there are more common ones such as:

ہرا = green 

پیلا = yellow

سرخ = red

گندمی = Wheat

سرمئی  = gray

One confusion that I always have is about 'kaasni'. Some say 'purple' is kassni. Some say its more red than purple and some say its more blue. Mauve, as BP suggests, is definitely lighter than purple. Faiz Sahib writes:

raat chale...
siyah raat chale...
........
Dard kai kaasni pazeb bajaati niklay

In this poem, it is the night that is walking wearing the 'kaasni' anklets of pain. The color that brings together the symbols of dusk and pain is red with slight blue but more red. What do you think?


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## lcfatima

Does no one know fauzi or fauzia color?


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## Koozagar

Don't know fauzi. I knew a Fauzia who showed a different color every day


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## teaboy

BelligerentPacifist said:


> That works. We use _aabii maa2il_-آبی مائل- however, as I remember mentioning before.



Would that be aqua blue?  Or maybe aquamarine?


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## akak

I agree on the lilac/mauve for kaasnii. 

In the lists, I didn't see: 
_gulaabi_   (pink) 
_pyazi_     (cochineal/dusty pink)
_rani_       (for very bright magenta... this is probably a low register)
_sabz_      (green)
_baingani_ (alternate to jamuni / dark purple)
_baadami_  (creamy, beige)

Come to think of it, a lot of the 'color's are basically comparing to produce -- _gaajari, tarboozi_ etc.


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## panjabigator

Has anyone heard "naabii" for violet before? It might just be a Punjabi word.


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## Qureshpor

panjabigator said:


> Has anyone heard "naabii" for violet before? It might just be a Punjabi word.



No, the word is "'unaabii" ('ain +pesh+nuun+alif+be+zer+ye) but we Punjabis love to eat away parts of words and this is what is happening here!


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## panjabigator

Oh, it comes from Arabic? Didn't know!


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## miaomiao

زعفرانی 
zaafraani- yellow-orange


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## Maham

There is 

Dhaani = light green
Katthai = brown
Angoori = (the colour of yellow /green grapes) 
Naranji = orange

I would like to know how they call "*Lemon colour*" in Urdu. (neither peela, nor zard)


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## Maham

beside that

sunehra = golden
chaandi = silver
aasmaani = light blue
aarghwaani = purple


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## Qureshpor

Maham said:


> beside that
> 
> sunehra = golden
> chaandi = silver
> aasmaani = light blue
> aarghwaani = purple



For silver, perhaps "rupahlaa" as in Majaaz's famous nazm "aavaarah".

yih rupahlii chhaaoN yih aakaash par taaroN kaa jaal 
 jaise suufii kaa tasavvur jaise 'aashiq kaa KHayaal 
 aah lekin kaun jaane kaun samjhe jii kaa Haal 

ai Gham-i-dil kyaa karuuN ai vaHshat-i-dil kyaa karuuN


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## panjabigator

For lemon color, how about good old "nīmbū kā raṇg" نینبو کا رنگ?


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## BP.

teaboy said:


> Would that be aqua blue?  Or maybe aquamarine?


Could be either, but also generally used for blue AFAIK.


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## BP.

Maham said:


> beside that
> 
> ...
> chaandi = silver
> ...


Do they really call the colour chaandii as well? I've never heard so. I know _dark silver_ is _surma2ii_-سرمئی.



QURESHPOR said:


> For silver, perhaps "rupahlaa" as in Majaaz's famous nazm "aavaarah"....


Yes _rupehlaa_-روپہلا- is probably _glossy pale silver_. I am told that this relates to an indigenous word for the metal silver.


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## panjabigator

We say سلیٹی for silver or ash colored things.


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## Maham

Saleti is grey for me.

And of course they use chaandi in urdu for silver. "Chaandi ka rang" Have you never heard of it? Strange.  Well they won't use it to say like "chandi gaari" to say "silver car" .. but they would say "chandi ke rang ki .."


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## Dib

BP. said:


> Yes _rupehlaa_-روپہلا- is probably _glossy pale silver_. I am told that this relates to an indigenous word for the metal silver.



Indeed. Sanskrit ruupya- is silver, probably as the "beautiful metal" from "ruupa-", shape, form, beauty. Whence we have Bengali "rupa" (silver) as well as "ruupayaa", the appellation for money over a large part of the subcontinent - originally silver coins.


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## marrish

Perhaps it is the same pattern as of _*sun*ėhraa_, it makes me think about Sanskrit _svarNR-._


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## Sheikh_14

IMO jaamunii and banganii vary in that the former is a generic term for purple whilst the latter stands for what in English is known as aubergine and is specific to its shade.


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## Sheikh_14

Qureshpor said:


> For silver, perhaps "rupahlaa" as in Majaaz's famous nazm "aavaarah".
> 
> yih rupahlii chhaaoN yih aakaash par taaroN kaa jaal
> jaise suufii kaa tasavvur jaise 'aashiq kaa KHayaal
> aah lekin kaun jaane kaun samjhe jii kaa Haal
> 
> ai Gham-i-dil kyaa karuuN ai vaHshat-i-dil kyaa karuuN


QP saaHib whilst suhneraa is very common and therefore its usage is beyond doubt is chaandii used for silver-coloured items? For instance would a silver (coloured) stainless steel item I.e. cutlery be fulaadii and chaandii simultaneously? 

I've only come across items made of silver to be referred to as chaandii. I'm curious as to whether the same applies to those items which approximate to its colour akin to sleTii I.e. grey.

As for your comments on Punjabis adding and subtracting letters unnecessarily, I refer to this curious practise as Harf/Huruuf-xorii I.e. letter/s-eating based on how intensely they practise it 😁


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