Just to expand the explanation, blue and green were both just “ao” in Japanese until relatively recently (relatively still being a fairly long time), when “midori” started becoming more popular to refer to green.
As for why the traffic light is still called “blue” despite being green, one need only ask why there is a very popular rhyme scheme in English that goes “roses are red, violets are blue…” when violets are violet.
zikzak025@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Just to expand the explanation, blue and green were both just “ao” in Japanese until relatively recently (relatively still being a fairly long time), when “midori” started becoming more popular to refer to green.
As for why the traffic light is still called “blue” despite being green, one need only ask why there is a very popular rhyme scheme in English that goes “roses are red, violets are blue…” when violets are violet.