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NAMES OF COLOURS IN THE PARABLES IN THE CONTEMPORARY CZECH TEXTS (OF CZECH NATIONAL CORPUS)

Summary/Abstract: There are parables with the names of colours in Czech that compare the “colour of people – of the human face, human skin”, of the colour of anything else to the colour of anything in nature, of natural scenery: to the colour of plants (žlutý jako pampeliška – as yellow as a dandelion, žlutý jako citron – as yellow as a lemon / lemon coloured), to the colours of animals or birds (žlutý jako kanárek – as yellow as a canary / canary coloured) or to the colours of anything else in natural scenery (šedý jako moøe – as grey as a billow, šedý jako hvìzdný veèer/hvìzdné nebe – as grey as an evening sky with stars), or the parables can compare the colour of the human body (face) to the colour of some things (žlutý jako vosk – as yellow as a wax /, žlutý jako pergamen – as yellow as vellum, žlutý jako pivo – as yellow as a beer, šedý jako ocel – as grey as steel/steel-grey, šedý jako popel – as grey as ashes / cinereous). Authors of belles-lettres or of poetry using parable-comparison with the words žlutý / yellow usually depict the human visage as a symptom of illness or caducity (jeho oblièej byl žlutý jako vosk – his face was yellow as wax; byl žlutý jako pergamen – he was yellow as vellum) or they etiolate the people (zuby mìl žluté jako citron – his teeth were lemon yellowed, dostal žloutenku a byl žlutý jako kanárek – he suffered from jaundice and was canary coloured). Using the word šedý / grey in parable-comparison authors sometimes depict people of nasty appearance (oblièej šedý jako prach / jako popel – face as grey as dust / / as ashes / cindereous), but sometimes they picture something nice in the human appearance (oèi šedé jako hvìzdné nebe / jako moøe / jako oblázky – eyes as grey as an evening sky with stars / billow/ pebbles).

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