Well, here is what Wikipedia has to say on some parts of the matter you raise, Pat:
The native Korean word 푸르다 (Revised Romanization: pureu-da adj.) may mean either blue or green, or bluish green. This word 푸르다is used as in 푸른 하늘 (pureun haneul, blue sky) for blue or as in 푸른 숲 (pureun sup, green forest) for green. Distinct words for blue and green are also used; 파란 (paran adj.), 파란색/파랑 (paransaek/parang n.) for blue, 초록 (chorok adj./n.), 초록색 (choroksaek n. or for short,녹색 noksaek n.) for green. However, in the case of a traffic light, paran is used for the green light meaning go, even though the word is typically used to mean blue. Cheong 청 is also used for both blue and green. It is a loan from Chinese (靑, pinyin: qing) and is used in the proper name Cheong Wa Dae (청와대 or Hanja: 靑瓦臺), the Blue House, which is the executive office and official residence of the President of the Republic of Korea.
Vietnamese[edit]
Vietnamese usually does not use separate words for green and refers to that color using a word that can also refer to blue. In Vietnamese, blue and green are denoted by xanh. This is a colloquial rendering of thanh, as with Chinese and Japanese. Blue is specifically described as xanh, as in the skin of the sky (xanh da trời) or "xanh, as in the ocean" (xanh dương) and "green as xanh", as in the leaves (xanh lá cây).
Modern Vietnamese occasionally does employ the terms xanh lam and xanh lục (in which the second syllables derive from the Chinese:蓝 and 绿 as explained above) for blue and green, respectively.
I myself, in common with many men, I understand, often refer to what I think is blue when it is green to my wife. 'Leaf green' as referred to above doesn't solve much in Australia where gum leaves are 'glaucous' and often look bluish to me.
Bill
> On 2 Oct 2013, at 5:59 pm, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Bill Gosh no blues in some places -I am learning -I do have blue eyes I
> wonder what colour they are called in Korea where they make such delicate
> 'blue pottery' thanks P (old ex potter)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Bill Wootton
> Sent: 01 October 2013 22:07
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Blue snap
>
> Blue
>
> Nothing blue is mowed.
> No food is truly blue.
> We reserve blue for sky,
> jeans and, collectively,
> pockets of existential pain.
>
> There is no blue in Russia,
> only words for its shades.
> Sea is said to be blue
> but only in the deep
> and unstably so.
>
> Pure blue is unmixed,
> falls between violet
> and green. Males mis
> -pick green from blue
> more than females do.
>
> Whole cultures don't share
> the western blue. Korean,
> Thai, Japanese, Dakota Sioux,
> have no separate words
> for green and blue.
>
> So deep in the Americas
> and in much of Asia
> blue means go
> and - slap my stanza
> blue lawns are mowed.
>
> bw
> 30.09.13
>
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