青

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

• Appendix:Chinese radical/靑
• 倩, 凊, 啨, 埥, 婧, 崝, 情, 掅, 清, 猜, 晴, 𤲟, 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 Dictionary: not present, would follow page 1381, character 19
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 42564
• Dae Jaweon: page 1893, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 4046, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9752

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *sʰleːŋ): phonetic 生 (OC *sʰleːŋ, *sreŋs) + phonetic 井 (OC *skeŋʔ). ^{[字源 1]}

Shuowen interprets it as an ideogrammic compound of 生 (“growth of plants”) + 丹 (“cinnabar”). A variant inspired by this interpretation is 𤯞. The implication being that cinnabar, being used for dyeing, would 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 (yuè, “moon”).

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

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sreŋ (“to live; to be alive; to give birth; raw; green”). Cognate with 生 (OC *sʰleːŋ, *sreŋs, “to live”), 蒼 (OC *sʰaːŋ, “green; blue”), 性 (OC *sleŋs, “nature”), 姓 (OC *sleŋs, “surname”). Note 蒼 (OC *sʰaːŋ) may be an old dialect variant of 青 (OC *sʰleːŋ) (Schuessler, 2007).

青

1. blue-green ("grue"); blue (of sky, stone etc.); green (of grass, plants, mountain etc.)

   青天  ―  qīngtiān  ―  blue sky

   青筋  ―  qīngjīn  ―  blue veins

   青草  ―  qīngcǎo  ―  green grass

   青山綠水／青山绿水  ―  qīngshānlǜshuǐ  ―  green hills and rivers

2. blue-green ("grue")-colored items
   1. green grass

      踏青  ―  tàqīng  ―  to go on an outing to the countryside during spring

   2. crops that have not yet ripened

      青黃不接／青黄不接  ―  qīnghuángbùjiē  ―  (please add an English translation of this usage example)

3. black (of hair, cloth, silk thread etc.)

   青絲／青丝  ―  qīngsī  ―  black hair

4. (Southern Min) green

   青紅燈／青红灯 [Hokkien]  ―  chheⁿ-âng-teng [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  traffic light

5. (Hong Kong) lime green

   青BB [Cantonese]  ―  ceng¹ bi¹ bi¹ [Jyutping]  ―  (please add an English translation of this usage example)

6. young; adolescent

   青年  ―  qīngnián  ―  youth; adolescence

   青春  ―  qīngchūn  ―  youth

7. short for 青年 (qīngnián)

   老中青  ―  lǎozhōngqīng  ―  the old, the middle-aged and the young

   知青  ―  zhīqīng  ―  zhiqing, ""educated youth"

   覺青／觉青  ―  juéqīng  ―  "politically-awakened youth"

8. (literary, obsolete) east
9. (literary, obsolete) spring
10. short for 青海 (Qīnghǎi, “Qinghai Province”)

    青藏鐵路／青藏铁路  ―  Qīng Zàng tiělù  ―  Qinghai-Tibet Railway

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. In fact, 青 covered both green and blue ("grue") until modern times. For example, 青山綠水 / 青山绿水 (qīngshānlǜshuǐ, “hill or water green in color”), 青蘋果 / 青苹果 (qīng píngguǒ, “green apple”). However, there are still some expressions for the meaning of blue, e.g. 青天 (qīngtiān, “blue sky”), 青出於藍 / 青出于蓝 (qīngchūyúlán, “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 黑 (hak¹) would be considered 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)

Others:

• → Tocharian A: tseṃ (“blue”)
• → Tocharian B: tseṃ m (“blue”), tseñña f
• → Vietnamese: xanh (“green”)

青

1. alternative form of 菁 (jīng)

   used in 青青 (qīngqīng)

青

1. (Hokkien) alternative form of 鮮 / 鲜 (chhiⁿ)
   1. fresh
      • 2014, “媽媽的菜”, 浩子 (lyrics)‎^[2]performed by 浩角翔起:

        我欲尚青的現撈仔 [Taiwanese Hokkien, trad.]
        我欲尚青的现捞仔 [Taiwanese Hokkien, simp.]

        góa beh siōng chhiⁿ ê hiān-lâu-á [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]

        I want the freshest catch

      • 2017, “人情味 [rénqíngwèi]”, 郭之儀 (lyrics)‎^[3]performed by 蔡佳麟:

        吃遍了山珍海味　寶島上青 [Taiwanese Hokkien, trad.]
        吃遍了山珍海味　宝岛上青 [Taiwanese Hokkien, simp.]

        Chia̍h phiàn liáu san-tin-hái-bī, Pó-tó siōng chhiⁿ [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]

        After eating all kinds of delicacies, Formosa's are the freshest

   2. (of clothes) bright; pretty; neat
      • 1991, “西北雨請你慢且落”, 李子恆 (lyrics), performed by 羅時豐 and 李芳雯:

        洋裝青青　歡喜要來去約會 [Taiwanese Hokkien, trad.]
        洋装青青　欢喜要来去约会 [Taiwanese Hokkien, simp.]

        iûⁿ-chong chhiⁿ-chhiⁿ, hoaⁿ-hí beh lâi-khì iok-hōe [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]

        With a pretty suit, happy to go to a date

• 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)‎^[4], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• “青”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.

(First grade kyōiku kanji)

1. blue, cyan, azure
2. (obsolete, poetic) green
3. immature, unripe, young
4. publication, record
5. east

• Go-on: しょう (shō, Jōyō ^†)^{←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, 青, historical)}、あおい (aoi, 青い, Jōyō)^{←あをい (awoi, 青い, historical)}、さお (sao, 青)^{←さを (sawo, 青, 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(あめ) (ame, “rain”, becoming same in old compounds) and 稲(いね) (ine, “rice”, becoming shine in old compounds).

• (Tokyo) あお [áꜜò] (Atamadaka – [1])^[3][2]
• IPA^(key): [a̠o̞]

• Audio:

  (file)

• (Kyoto) あお [àó] (Teiki – [0])^[2]

• (Kyoto) あお​ぉ [àô] (Teiki)^[4][2]

青(あお) • (ao) ^{←あを (awo)?}

1. blue
   1. one of three primary colors
   2. a shade of blue to blue green
2. (dated) green

   青(あお)林(りん)檎(ご) ― ao ringo ― green apple

3. short for 青信号 (aoshingō): green light (traffic light color, as the color of plants)

   Antonym: 赤 (aka)

4. the black, bluish color of a horse's hair; also, such a horse

   Synonym: 青毛 (aoge)

   • 1603, Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam (Nippo Jisho) [Vocabulary of the Language of Japan] (in Portuguese), Nagasaki, page 39:
     ^[5]

     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.

5. (card games) short for 青短 (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
6. (card games) a blue card in 天正カルタ (Tenshō karuta)
7. short for 青本 (aohon, “a blue-green covered book containing summaries of plays, histories, and legends”)
8. short for 青銭 (aosen, “a 4 mon coin in circulation from 1768”)

青(あお) • (ao-) ^{←あを (awo-)?}

1. unripe, young

青(あお) • (Ao) ^{←あを (Awo)?}

1. a female given name
2. a surname

From Middle Chinese 青 (MC tsheng).

• IPA^(key): [se̞ː]

青(せい) • (sei) 

1. the color blue

青(せい) • (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(そうおん) (sōon, “Song-dynasty pronunciation”).^[6]

• IPA^(key): [ɕiː]

青(しい) • (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”)

• Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea (대한민국 대법원, Daehanmin'guk Daebeobwon) (2018). Table of hanja for personal names (인명용 한자표 / 人名用漢字表, Inmyeong-yong hanja-pyo), page 42. [5]

青: Hán Việt readings: thanh
青: Nôm readings: thanh, thênh, xanh

1. green
2. blue

• Nom Foundation