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Dathan
Today, a the colour of a dress is dividing the internet’s opinion, but colours have always been the subject of debate in Gaelic!
Although Gaelic learners will be taught that gorm means blue, it is often used to refer to green, or even grey as in these examples from the DASG Fieldwork Archive:
Fiar-gorm – ‘a reference to new, fresh grass’
Cù gorm – ‘greyhound’
Cha robh e cho gorm. – ‘He wasn’t so green.’
Dubh is the word for black, but it appears in one instance in our Fieldwork Archive and Corpus meaning brown – the term dubh-bhreac is given as meaning ‘brown trout’
Liath can be used to mean either grey or blue, with grey most commonly used to refer to hair colour or colours in nature.
Do you know any other Gaelic words that are commonly used to refer to different colours? If so, get in touch on Facebook or Twitter.
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