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Slang or expression for "extreme dark" | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5806 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 9 of 14 16 September 2010 at 9:26pm | IP Logged | ||
I agree with maydayayday -- jet black is a colour. It is not about darkness. Jet is a semi-precious stone, it's very black, but it's shiny -- azeviche, I think. It would be odd to compare darkness to something shiny. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5148 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German | Message 10 of 14 16 September 2010 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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My bad. I apologise if I misled anyone.
By the way, can't 'jet-black' also be used to mean 'dark' as in 'sinister' though? I think I have already come across it being used in that manner. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5351 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 11 of 14 16 September 2010 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's one my mum always said to me as a child: "as dark as Erebus".
It's only recently that I discovered that Erebus is the primordial Greek god of darkness, husband of night, and father of Charon the ferryman. It also refers to the "place of darkness between Earth and Hades". I always fancy a good story, and think Greek mythology rocks in this respect! Here's more info if you're interested. :) Edited by Teango on 17 September 2010 at 5:22am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5148 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German | Message 12 of 14 16 September 2010 at 10:09pm | IP Logged | ||
Quite interesting. Don't think I'll forget that phrase or the mythology it stems from. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| indiana83 Groupie United States ipracticecanto.wordp Joined 5285 days ago 92 posts - 121 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese, Italian | Message 13 of 14 16 September 2010 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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In addition to the previous slangs, there is also the same expression in English as in Chinese.
The phrases "can't see your hand in front of your face" and "can't see my hand in front of my face" (in quotes for exact search) each yield 150,000 results. The phrases "couldn't see your hand in front of your face" and "couldn't see my hand in front of my face" also yield similar numbers of results. However, "pitch black" is more popular with 2 million results. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6498 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 14 16 September 2010 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Danish expression likes ".. that you can't see a hand before you" (.. s¨man ikke kan se en hånd foran sig) invariably refer to mist. To describe darkness we mostly refer til coal, sometimes in quite flowery expressions: "kul ravende buldersort" (coal raving rumble black). Or "sort som blæk" (black as ink, - disregarding the fact that ink can be other colours than black)
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