{"id":9875,"date":"2018-05-23T12:52:32","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T12:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=9875"},"modified":"2018-05-23T12:52:32","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T12:52:32","slug":"the-german-colour-eigengrau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-german-colour-eigengrau\/","title":{"rendered":"The German Colour Eigengrau"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you walk around in pitch dark, you only see black in front of you, right? In German, you see a colour called Eigengrau.<\/strong> Eigengrau, which literally means own grey or intrinsic grey, is the shade of black seen by the eye in complete darkness. On the Hex colour chart, where black is #000000, Eigengrau is #16161d.<\/p>\n

\"Eigengrau-vs-black.png\"<\/a>
\nBy Private Detective<\/a> – Own work<\/span>, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>, Link<\/a><\/p>\n

Eigengrau is also sometimes called Eigenlicht<\/strong> (\u2018Own light\u2019 or \u2018Intrinsic light\u2019), and is also a German loanword used in English.<\/p>\n

The German word \u2018eigen\u2019 means \u2018own\u2019, as in \u2018my own car\u2019. In German, the most common way of using the word eigen is by saying something like:<\/p>\n

Das ist mein eigenes <\/b>Fahrrad
\nThat is my own <\/b>bicycle<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The word Eigengrau or ‘own grey’ suggests that it is your ‘own’ colour; you see this shade of grey, rather than perfect black, as a result of signals from your<\/em> optic nerves.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image taken from Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

The word eigen is used surprisingly often in English maths and physics terminology, where it is used to create words that are half English and half German<\/strong>! Here are a few examples of words that use the word eigen in maths and physics:<\/p>\n

Eigenfrequency<\/em>
\nEigenvalue<\/em>
\nEigenvector<\/em>
\nEigensystem<\/em>
\nEigenspace<\/em>
\nEigenaxis<\/em>
\nEigenangle<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m no scientist or mathematician, so I couldn\u2019t tell you what all of these mean, but from a linguistic point of view, the use of the word \u2018eigen\u2019 makes all of these relate to an object or entity\u2019s intrinsic characteristics \u2013 so an Eigenvalue would be an entity\u2019s intrinsic or \u2018own\u2019 value.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image taken from Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

Going back to German, here are a selection of words you will find that start with the word eigen. Notice how they are all words that relate to \u2018owning\u2019 something, something that comes from or goes to oneself. I have put the original words (without ‘eigen’) and their translations in bold.<\/p>\n

die Eigenw<\/b>\u00e4<\/b><\/span>rme<\/b><\/span> \u2013 <\/span>body <\/span>heat<\/b><\/span>
\n<\/span>das Eigen<\/span>tor<\/b><\/span> \u2013 own <\/span>goal<\/b><\/span>
\ndie Eigen<\/span>liebe<\/b><\/span> \u2013 self-<\/span>love <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post about the quirky little word that is eigen<\/em>! Have you seen or heard any words beginning with eigen? Were they German or English? Let me know in the comments!<\/p>\n

Bis bald<\/p>\n

Constanze<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

When you walk around in pitch dark, you only see black in front of you, right? In German, you see a colour called Eigengrau. Eigengrau, which literally means own grey or intrinsic grey, is the shade of black seen by the eye in complete darkness. On the Hex colour chart, where black is #000000, Eigengrau…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":9877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[11971,8],"tags":[229498,503854,503985,503986,375970,95131,451644,376023,95337,1401],"class_list":["post-9875","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar-language","category-language","tag-colours","tag-curious-words","tag-eigen","tag-eigengrau","tag-german-and-english","tag-german-language","tag-german-words","tag-language","tag-loan-words","tag-words"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t