黑暗

黑暗

1. dark; unlighted

   • 光照在黑暗裏，黑暗卻不接受光。 [MSC, trad.]
     光照在黑暗里，黑暗却不接受光。 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 新標點和合本 (Chinese Union Version), 約翰福音 (John) 1:5

     Guāng zhào zài hēi'àn lǐ, hēi'àn què bù jiēshòu guāng. [Pinyin]

     And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

   他們被人驅趕進入一個黑暗的地牢。 [MSC, trad.]
   他们被人驱赶进入一个黑暗的地牢。 [MSC, simp.]

   Tāmen bèi rén qūgǎn jìnrù yī ge hēi'àn de dìláo. [Pinyin]

   They were driven into a dark dungeon.

2. (figurative) backward; unenlightened; evil; corrupt; sordid; dark

   一個黑暗的世界／一个黑暗的世界  ―  yīge hēi'àn de shìjiè  ―  a dark world

• (dark):

• (dark): 光明 (guāngmíng)

The 9^th-century Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang described 黑暗 (MC hək̚ ʔʌmH, “lit. black-dark”) as the name for “rhinoceros(-horn)” in the place Po-se (波斯 (Bōsī), “Persia”), in parallel to 白暗 (MC bˠæk̚ ʔʌmH, “lit. white-dark”), the designation for “ivory”.

Laufer (1914: 145) and Laufer (1967: 473) pointed out that these names cannot be Persian, but are Malayan in origin. Additionally, it is clear that neither the Malayan words for “rhinoceros-horn” and “ivory”, nor the words for “rhinoceros” and “elephant”, are implicated in these etymologies. It appears that these two Chinese words are corruptions of the colour names “black” and “white”, with which the local traders in Malaya at the time distinguished rhinoceros-horn and ivory.

Laufer compared the former with Jarai [Term?] (hötam), Cebuano itom, Malay hitam, Javanese item, Tagalog itim, all meaning “black” (in Austronesian languages), and the latter with: Čam bauṅ, boṅ, or bhuṅ; Senoi biūg, other forms in the Sakei and Semang languages of Malakka biok, biäk, biēg, begiäk, bekuṅ, bekog; Alfur, Boloven, Kon tu, Kaseng, Lave, and Niah bok, Sedeng röboṅ, Stieng bōk (“white”); Bahnar bak (Mon bu), most of which are the Mon-Khmer words for “white” (proto-form *kɓɔɔk and *kbooʔ).

黑暗

1. (obsolete) rhinoceros horn

• 白暗 (bái'àn)