Etymologically
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blu

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Pronunciation

Forms

blu (invariable)[1] Early spellings were bleu (1690), bleau (1697) and blù (1701).[2] A northern regional form is blé.[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French bleu (“blue”), earlier Old French blou and bleve (with blef from the 12th century), which also meant “pale, wan”.[2][5][6][1] The French word comes from Frankish *blāo, rendered as Late Latin blavus by 6th-century Latin writers such as Isidore, from Proto-Germanic *blēwaz (“blue, yellowish-grey”), the source also of Old High German blāo, German blau and English blue.[2][5][7][1][4] DELI and Sabatini–Coletti note that the Germanic word meant “blond” as well, and that the clash between the two colours has led scholars to think of a crossing with a Celtic root.[2][3]

The same Germanic word had come into Italian much earlier, through Old French or Old Occitan blau, as Old Italian biavo and biado, so the two are doublets.[5][8][1][7] Catalan blau is the same word.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the spelling bleu, in a document of 1690 in the Medici archive, with the sense “dark azure”;[2] bleau follows in 1697 in Vincenzo Coronelli and blù in 1701.[2] Zingarelli dates the word to 1701;[4][6][5][9] GRADIT, Nocentini and Devoto–Oli give 1863, when it entered the dictionaries.[4][6][5][9]

Semantic evolution

The noun, “the colour blue”, is recorded in Tommaseo's dictionary in 1865, where the names of shades used in the trade are listed: blu chiaro, blu del re, blu Maria Luisa, blu Napoleone and others, which, he notes, nobody would understand if they were called turchini.[2][10] Many of these names copy French ones, such as bleu marin and bleu électrique.[11] The sense “a dye or chemical compound of blue colour” is recorded in 1965, as in blu di metilene and blu di Prussia.[2][4] The adjective bluastro was also taken from French bleuâtre.[2]

Sangue blu “blue blood”, of noble descent, is a calque of Spanish sangre azul.[9] Fifa blu is a terrible fright, and since the blue official cars (auto blu) of Italian ministers, journalists call other perks of public officials blu as well.[6][4][9] The UN's peacekeepers are the caschi blu.[12]

Timeline

  • 1690 – The spelling bleu appears in a document in the Medici archive.[2]
  • 1697 – Vincenzo Coronelli writes bleau.[2]
  • 1701 – The spelling blù is recorded.[2][4]
  • 1863 – Blu is entered in the dictionaries.[6][5]
  • 1865 – Tommaseo records the noun “the colour blue”.[2]
  • 1881 – Bluastro is recorded.[2]
  • 1965 – The sense “blue dye or compound” is recorded.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (invariable) blue, dark blue: of the colour of a clear sky or the deep sea: Per il colloquio si è messo una cravatta blu.[6][9][3]
  2. (journalism) Of goods or privileges assigned to public officials, after the blue official cars: auto blu.[9][4]

Noun

  1. (invariable) The colour blue, often followed by a word that names the shade: Il blu notte ti sta benissimo.[6][9][3]
  2. (chemistry) A dye, pigment or compound of blue colour: blu di metilene, blu di Prussia.[6][9][4]

Word family

  • bluastro

Usage notes

The standard spelling is blu without an accent;[4][11] blù is to be avoided.[4][11] Italian distinguishes blu, a dark blue, from azzurro, the lighter blue of the sky.[3][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Zaccaria, Enrico (1901), L'elemento germanico nella lingua italiana: lessico con appendice e prospetto cronologico, Bologna: Treves
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana