bokeh

English

WOTD – 3 November 2017

Alternative forms

• boke

Etymology

An example of bokeh

From Japanese 暈け (boke, “blur”), the nominalized form of 暈ける (bokeru, “to blur (intransitive)”).

The terminal -h, absent in the romanization boke, is a pronunciation guide so that it is not pronounced as /boʊk/ as it would be under standard English orthography. Contrast karate and karaoke, which have undergone sound changes.

The term has been used since at least 1996, with the spelling bokeh introduced by editor Mike Johnston in the March–April 1997 issue of Photo Techniques magazine, Johnston writing “it is properly pronounced with bo as in bone and ke as in Kenneth, with equal stress on either syllable”.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbəʊ.kə/, /ˈbəʊˌkeɪ/
• (US, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈboʊ.kə/, /ˈboʊˌkeɪ/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: bo‧keh

Noun

bokeh (usually uncountable, plural bokehs)

1. (photography) A subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of an image projected by a camera lens.
   • 2010, Charlotte K. Lowrie, “Exploring Canon Lenses and Accessories”, in Canon EOS Rebel T2i/550D Digital Field Guide, Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, page 186:

     The quality of the out-of-focus area in a wide-aperture image is called bokeh, originally from the Japanese word boke, pronounced bo-keh, which means fuzzy. In photography, bokeh reflects the shape and number of diaphragm blades in the lens, and that determines, in part, the way that out-of-focus points of light are rendered in the image. Bokeh is also a result of spherical aberration that affects how the light is collected. Although subject to controversy, photographers often judge bokeh as being either good or bad. Good bokeh renders the out-of-focus areas as smooth, uniform, and generally circular shapes with nicely blurred edges. Bad bokeh, on the other hand, renders out-of-focus areas with polygonal shapes, hard edges, and with illumination that creates a brighter area at the outside of the disk shape.

   • 2014, Bob Davis, Dawn Davis, “Blackhawks Fans: The Back Story, Posing, Lighting and Lens Selection, Colleagues”, in We’re Engaged!: Photographing Vibrant and Joyful Portraits of the Happy Couple, Buffalo, N.Y.: Amherst Media, →ISBN, pages 102–103:

     Shooting with natural light, I used a long lens (200mm) to compress the space and slightly blur the background by photographing at a large open aperture (f/2.5). This resulted in gorgeous bokeh, putting the city into a blur while keeping the couple razor sharp.

   • 2014, Krista Smith, “What You Need”, in The Right Light: Photographing Children and Families Using Natural Light, Buffalo, N.Y.: Amherst Media, →ISBN, page 13:

     More expensive lenses usually go down to f/2.8, letting you shoot at faster shutter speeds and get great, creamy bokeh in your background.

Translations

subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of an image

• Arabic: بوكيه
• Armenian: բոկե (boke)
• Bulgarian: боке m (boke)
• Catalan: bokeh m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 散景 (sǎnjǐng)

• Czech: bokeh (cs) m
• Danish: bokeh
• Dutch: bokeh
• Esperanto: bokeo
• Finnish: boke (fi)
• French: bokeh (fr) m
• Galician: boke m
• German: Bokeh n
• Hebrew: בוקה
• Hungarian: bokeh (hu)
• Indonesian: bokeh
• Italian: bokeh m
• Japanese: ボケ (ja) (boke)
• Korean: 보케 (boke)
• Limburgish: bokeh
• Luxembourgish: bokeh
• Malayalam: ബൊക്കെ (bokke)
• Marathi: बोके m (boke)
• Norwegian: bokeh m
• Persian: بوکه (fa)
• Polish: bokeh (pl) m
• Portuguese: bokeh m
• Russian: боке (ru) m (boke)
• Serbo-Croatian: бокеx
• Slovak: bokeh m
• Slovene: bokeh m
• Spanish: bokeh (es) m
• Swedish: bokeh
• Tamil: போக்கா (pōkkā)
• Turkish: bokeh
• Ukrainian: боке m (boke)
• Vietnamese: bokeh

Further reading

• bokeh on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Hungarian

Etymology

From Japanese 暈け (boke, “blur”), via English bokeh.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbokeː], [ˈbokɛ]
• Hyphenation: bo‧keh
• Rhymes: -keː, -kɛ

Noun

bokeh (plural bokeh-k)

1. (photography) bokeh (the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light)

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	bokeh	bokeh-k
accusative	bokeh-t	bokeh-kat
dative	bokeh-nak	bokeh-knak
instrumental	bokeh-val	bokeh-kkal
causal-final	bokeh-ért	bokeh-kért
translative	bokeh-vá	bokeh-kká
terminative	bokeh-ig	bokeh-kig
essive-formal	bokeh-ként	bokeh-kként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	bokeh-ban	bokeh-kban
superessive	bokeh-n	bokeh-kon
adessive	bokeh-nál	bokeh-knál
illative	bokeh-ba	bokeh-kba
sublative	bokeh-ra	bokeh-kra
allative	bokeh-hoz	bokeh-khoz
elative	bokeh-ból	bokeh-kból
delative	bokeh-ról	bokeh-król
ablative	bokeh-tól	bokeh-któl
non-attributive possessive - singular	bokeh-é	bokeh-ké
non-attributive possessive - plural	bokeh-éi	bokeh-kéi

Possessive forms of bokeh
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	bokeh-m	bokeh-im
2nd person sing.	bokeh-d	bokeh-id
3rd person sing.	bokeh-ja	bokeh-i
1st person plural	bokeh-nk	bokeh-ink
2nd person plural	bokeh-tok	bokeh-itok
3rd person plural	bokeh-juk	bokeh-ik

Indonesian

Etymology

From English bokeh, from Japanese 暈け (boke, “blur”), the nominalized form of 暈ける (bokeru, “to blur (intransitive)”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbokɛh]
• Hyphenation: bo‧kèh

Noun

bokeh or bokèh

1. (photography) bokeh, a subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of an image projected by a camera lens.

Further reading

• “bokeh” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.