Colour words in Vietnamese

Đen – - black

• Dark, evil, filth

Trắng – - white

• Traditionally associated with funerals (Chinese)
• Modern association with purity, weddings, etc (French)

Đỏ - red

• Traditionally associated with luck and fortune (Chinese)
• Modern association with danger (French)

Vàng - yellow (from gold)

• Imperial color, wealth and fortune

Xanh – - blue/green

• Naturalized pronunciation of 青 which is ‘thanh’ in standard Sino-Vietnamese
• Used to indicate blue/green distinction when translating other languages (e.g. English)

berde, lunti, luntian - green

Nâu – - brown race.

Hồng (紅) - pink

• Can also mean red in a literary context (reverts to its original Chinese meaning), then it has the same cultural associations as Đỏ.
• Modern association with femininity (French)

Cam - orange

• chảy máu cam = nosebleed (lit. "to flow orange blood")

Xám - grey, blurry, unclear

Tím – - purple

• Colour of bruising from being hit or from being in the cold

Bạc - silver (from silver 鉑)

• Grey hair is referred to as silver hair in Vietnamese

Chàm – - indigo (from the plant indigo)