同一条裙子，有人看成蓝黑色，有人看成白金色，有人一会儿黑蓝一会儿又白金了。到底是什么颜色！？从昨天起，“蓝黑党”与“白金党”已经开火24小时了，各种视神经专家，电脑绘图大师也都跑来站队。不过憋争了，现在语言学家跳出来说：其实它们都是同一个颜色！ All the Colors in That Dress Go Back to the Same Etymological Source Last night a picture of a dress launched a thousand arguments. Is it black and blue, or white and gold? Some people are completely convinced it’s one or the other. Others experience a flip back and forth between the two perceptions, seemingly at random. Vision scientists, and computer graphics programs have weighed in on the controversy, but what, you ask (as you always should, do linguists have to say? Well, as it turns out, something important. Something that may unite us all. You see, all the colors in that dress go back to the same Proto-Indo-European root, *bhel-.
昨晚，一条裙子可是在网络上激起了千层浪。这条裙子的颜色到底是黑蓝还是白金？很多人坚信有且只有一种可能，但有些人却两套颜色随机转换（小编就是幸运的一枚）。视觉科学家、电脑绘图程序员们也都纷纷站出来答（si）疑（bi），而现在，语言学家们也有话要说了。他们的观点可是相当重要的，重要到能平息纷争，维护和平。因为，裙子上出现的所有颜色，都可追根溯底到同一个原始英欧语系词根——*bhel-。 Yes, *bhel-, which had the sense of “bright, shining” gave rise to various words for white. Blanche, blanco, and bianco in the Romance languages, belyi, bjal, and bialy in Slavic languages, blank, bleach, and pale in English. 首先，*bhel-有“光亮”“闪耀”的意思，一切用来形容“白”的词汇，都源于此意思，如罗曼斯语中的blanche、blanco、bianco；斯拉夫语中的belyi、bjal、bialy；英语中的blank、bleach、pale。 What else is bright and shining? Fire. Blaze and flame also go back to *bhel-, and what color are things have been through a blazing flame? Black. Black also goes back to *bhel-. 那么还有什么是明亮而闪耀的呢？火！形容火的词如blaze、flame也都源于*bhel-。那么万物经过燃烧的火焰之后是什么颜色？黑色嘛！所以黑色也可以说源自*bhel-。 Through the concept of brightness, *bhel- also went down various paths to emerge as blond and the Latin flavus, meaning golden yellow. 根据“光亮”的定义，*bhel-也可以衍生出代表“金黄色”的单词，如英语中的
