blue

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bluː/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bleu, borrowed from Old French bleu, blo (“pale, pallid; blue-grey”),^[2][3][4] from Frankish *blāo or another Germanic source,^[2][5] from Proto-Germanic *blēwaz,^[2][6] the source also of Old High German blāo, German blau and Old Norse blár (“dark blue, livid”).^[2][7][8] It replaced the corresponding Old English blāw.^[3][8] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *bhel- (“to shine, flash, burn”),^[2][9] and it is related to Latin flāvus (“yellow”).^[6][4][5] Etymonline notes the slipperiness of colour words: the Germanic word could also mean “yellow” in Middle High German and “swarthy, black” in Old Norse.^[2] The Scots and northern blae is a cognate from Old Norse.^[8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the colour of the clear sky: before 1300, in Sir Tristrem,^[3] or before 1300 in the OED.^[11] It also meant “livid, lead-coloured”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The present spelling dates from the 16th century and has been common since about 1700.^[2] Blue clothing is from the late 15th century,^[2][11] and by about 1600 blue was the colour of servants' dress, which may be why police uniforms are blue.^[2] The blue, the sky, is from the 1640s, hence bolt from the blue from 1837.^[2] Word Origins notes that people have felt blue, “sad”, since late Middle English, and that the blues of the mid-18th century is short for blue devils, demons supposed to cause depression.^[10] Blue meaning “lewd, indecent” is from 1840, in Carlyle;^[2] the connection with the colour is unclear.^[2] Blue blood translates Spanish sangre azul.^[6] As a party colour it is by 1835, Conservative in most of England.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1300 – sky-coloured (Sir Tristrem).^[3][11]
• late 15th century – blue clothing.^[2]
• c. 1600 – verb, to make blue.^[2]
• 1640s – the blue, the sky.^[2]
• mid-18th century – the blues.^[10]
• 1835 – a party colour.^[2]
• 1837 – bolt from the blue.^[2]
• 1840 – indecent.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Of the colour of the clear sky or the deep sea.
2. Bluish or greyish, as from cold or bruising; livid.
3. Gloomy, depressed.
4. Indecent, risqué: a blue joke.
5. Strict, puritanical: blue laws.
6. Aristocratic: blue blood.

Noun

1. The colour of the clear sky.
2. Blue clothing or cloth.
3. the blue: the sky; the sea.
4. (British) A person who has represented a university, especially Oxford or Cambridge, in a sport.

Verb

1. To make or become blue.

Word family

• bluely
• blueness
• black-and-blue
• Bluebeard
• bluebeat
• bluebell
• bluebill
• Bluebird

Related words

• blae
• blues
• bleach
• bald

Usage notes

The British slang verb blue, “to squander money”, from 1846, may be a variant of blow and is probably a separate word.^[12][8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge