藍

藍 U+F923, 藍 CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-F923 ← 濫 CJK Compatibility Ideographs 襤 →

Translingual

Han character

藍 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+14 in Chinese and Korean, 艸+15 in Japanese, 18 strokes in traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean, 17 strokes in mainland China, cangjie input 廿尸戈廿 (TSIT) or 廿尸一廿 (TSMT), four-corner 4410₇, composition ⿱艹監)

Derived characters

• 灆 礷 㘕 𢹹 𣠩(𣞎) 𤓆 𤼓 𥍍 𧕭 𧟋 𧾲 𨰗 𩟺 𩽭 𪈭 𫲝 𭐌

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1064, character 16
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 32258
• Dae Jaweon: page 1528, character 35
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3311, character 8
• Unihan data for U+85CD

• Unihan data for U+F923

Chinese

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *ɡ·raːm) : semantic 艸 (“grass”) + phonetic 監 (OC *kraːm, *kraːms).

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-ram (“indigo”); cognate with Lepcha ᰛᰤᰨᰮ (ryom), Mru (charam), Tibetan རམས (rams, “indigo”) (STEDT; Schuessler, 2007; Hill, 2019). However, Laufer (1916) considers the Tibetan word to be borrowed from Chinese.

Schuessler (2007) considers this an areal word, possibly from Southeast Asia; cf. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *taʀum (“indigo plant and dye”) (> Malay tarum).

Pronunciation

Definitions

藍

1. blue

   藍色／蓝色  ―  lánsè  ―  blue color

2. indigo plant (Indigofera tinctoria)

   • 青，取之於藍，而青於藍。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     青，取之于蓝，而青于蓝。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Xunzi, c. 3^rd century BCE

     Qīng, qǔ zhī yú lán, ér qīng yú lán.

     Blue is obtained from the indigo plant but is bluer than the plant itself.

3. (politics) related to the pro-unification pan-Blue coalition of Taiwan
4. (HK politics) supportive of the Hong Kong Police Force and the Hong Kong government
5. (literary) Short for 伽藍／伽蓝 (qiélán, “Buddhist temple”).

   名藍／名蓝  ―  mínglán  ―  (please add an English translation of this usage example)

6. a surname: Lan

   藍玉／蓝玉  ―  Lán Yù  ―  Lan Yu (Ming dynasty general)

Synonyms

• (indigo plant): 蓼藍／蓼蓝 (liǎolán)

See also

• (supportive of the Hong Kong Police Force and the Hong Kong government) 藍絲／蓝丝 (lánsī)

Descendants

Others:

• → Proto-Hmong-Mien: *ŋglam ~ ŋgram (“indigo”)
  • White Hmong: nkaj
• → Proto-Tai: *g.raːmᴬ (“indigo”)
  • Thai: คราม (kraam)
  • Lao: ຄາມ (khām)
  • Zhuang: gyaemq (“purple-red”)
• → Proto-Tai: *kromꟲ (“indigo”)
  • Thai: ฮ่อม (hɔ̂ɔm)
  • Zhuang: romj, goromj
• →? Proto-Vietic: *ɟaːm (“indigo”)
  • Muong: chàm
  • Vietnamese: chàm
• → Khmer: ត្រុំ (trom)
• → Zhuang: lamz

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

1. the Japanese indigo or Chinese indigo plant, Persicaria tinctoria
2. the color indigo
3. kanji used to transliterate Buddhist terms borrowed from Sanskrit

Readings

• Go-on: らん (ran, Jōyō)^{←らん (ran, historical)←らむ (ramu, ancient)}
• Kan-on: らん (ran, Jōyō)^{←らん (ran, historical)←らむ (ramu, ancient)}
• Kun: あい (ai, 藍, Jōyō)^{←あゐ (awi, あゐ, historical)}

Compounds

Etymology

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

藍

Wikipedia ^ja

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

アイ (植物)

Wikipedia ^ja

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Persicaria tinctoria

Wikipedia

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

藍色

Wikipedia ^ja

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Indigo

Wikipedia

/awi/ → */aji/ → /ai/

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *awoy.

There are various theories regarding the ultimate derivation, all suggesting a relation to 青 (awo → ao, “blue”):

• May be an alteration from 青色 (awoiro → aoiro):

  ⟨awoiro₂⟩ → /awoirə/ → /awɨrə/ → /airo/ → /ai/

• May be a fusion of 青 (awo → ao) and い (i, emphatic particle)

  */awo i/ → */awɨ/ → */awi/ → */aji/ → /ai/

• May be derived from a compound of 青 (awo → ao) +‎ 居 (wi → i, “there is”), expressing the sense that the indigo plant contains the color blue:

  /awowi/ → */awːɨ/ → /awi/ → */aji/ → /ai/

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) あ​い (Atamadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

藍(あい) or 藍(アイ) • (ai) ^{←あゐ (awi) or アヰ (awi)?}

1. the Japanese indigo or Chinese indigo plant, Persicaria tinctoria

   Synonyms: 藍蓼 (aitade), 蓼藍 (tade-ai)

   Hypernym: 蓼 (tade)

2. the color indigo, from the dye processed from the stems and leaves of various indigo plants

   Synonyms: 藍色 (aiiro, ranshoku), インジゴ (injigo), インディゴ (indigo)

3. Short for 藍蝋 (airō): indigo pigment made from boiled-down indigo dye liquid

Usage notes

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as アイ.

Derived terms

Proverbs

• 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)

Proper noun

藍(あい) • (Ai) ^{←あゐ (awi)?}

1. a female given name
2. a surname

References

• Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

Further reading

• Entry at Nihonjiten (in Japanese)

Korean

Hanja

藍 • (ram>nam) (hangeul 람>남, McCune–Reischauer ram>nam, Yale lam>nam)

Etymology 1

Hanja

藍 (eumhun 쪽 람 (jjok ram))

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Etymology 2

Hanja

藍 (eumhun 볼 감 (bol gam))

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

藍: Hán Nôm readings: lam, chàm, rôm, rườm, trôm, xám

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

References

• Nôm Foundation