Etymologically
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blue

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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
  • 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