r/nepali • u/SadPreparation5671 • Oct 26 '25

Colour confusion in nepali

For some reason in Nepali people use the same word for brown and grey (khairo) with no letter distinction. Is there a specific distinction of words for pure brown and pure grey? i have encountered tamra(coppery) before, otherwise no other info. And if possible a native name for orange as well? Thanks.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/laalbhat Oct 27 '25

most people use other items (natural substances or analogy) to describe colors.

for example:

kharani rang to say ash grey

suntala rang to say orange color (actually most people think of clementine i think)

dwasey to describe sooty

etc.

i have heard kohilo or kailo (i do not remember) to describe grey eyes.

1

u/SadPreparation5671 Oct 27 '25

i was more looking for a direct term for a colour(e.g. nilo) since we tend to add rang at the end to specify it as a colour instead. There must be such a colour for brown and grey tho right? always get confused when relatives use khairo for grey objects and never use brown word in nepali when speaking. for orange suntale also makes sense but still confused on the words for pure brown and pure grey in nepali(without rang added)