Sabine
How do you say rainbow?
Hello,
yesterday I saw a huge rainbow, how do you say rainbow in your mother tongue, what's the translation?
In french we say "arc en ciel" which means "bow in the sky".
2019年6月18日 15:04
コメント · 16
6
I've always liked Chinese, which uses two completely different words for the two rainbows in a double rainbow. The lower, brighter main rainbow is called a "hong" (虹), while the higher, dimmer secondary rainbow with reversed colors is called a "ni" (霓).
By the way, you might have noticed that the area between the two rainbows is darker than the rest of the sky. People who specialize in optics call this dark region "Alexander's dark band", and I wish people talked about it more--there's something very poignant about the fact that rainbows create darkness.
Here's a picture where you can see the hong, the ni, and Alexander's dark band:
2019年6月18日
4
In Portuguese it is: Arco-íris
Arco=arc
Íris= Its name comes from the Greek mythology, where Iris was a goddess who exerted the function of divine herald. In her task of messenger, the goddess left a multicolored trail as she crossed the skies.
That's why we call it as Arco-íris
Being honest I just discovered this etymology so I'm pretty amazed with this new information, it's incredible that an ancient belief had, somehow, established a connection with our language without we even doesn't knowing it. Thank you for the curious question!
2019年6月18日
2
In Arabic language we say قوس قزح
Which means
high arc
2019年6月19日
2
In Ukrainian it is - "veselka". It means - "funny thing". It is close in meaning with the Russian word for rainbow - "raduga". Victor noted below that we can translate it like "the arc of gladness".
But I saw anather non-traditional explanation - the Russian word "raduga" or "ra-duga" close to word from Sanskrit for rainbow सुरधनुस् /sura-dhanus/. And it means "bow or arc of God".
2019年6月19日
2
We say 'szivárvány' in Hungarian. I've never thought it had an actual meaning other than rainbow, or what the root is, so I looked it up.
It comes from the verb szív 'to suck' because some people believed that rainbows suck up the rain and water from rivers.
It also meant sponge, pump well,suction-pump. All this was new information to me as well:D
(By the way, 'iris' is szivárványhártya, lit. 'rainbow membrane'.)
It comes from the verb szív 'to suck' because some people believed that rainbows suck up the rain and water from rivers.
It also meant sponge, pump well,suction-pump. All this was new information to me as well:D
(By the way, 'iris' is szivárványhártya, lit. 'rainbow membrane'.)
2019年6月19日
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