blue
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: blo͞o
ipa: /bluː/
note: Wales, Ottawa Valley
ipa: /blɪʊ̯/
enpr: blyo͞o
ipa: /bljuː/
homophone: blew
rhymes: -uː
Forms: form: blues
form: blew
form: blewe
Etymology: From Middle English blewe, from Anglo-Norman blew (“blue”), from Middle French bleu, from Old French blöe, bleve, blef (“blue”), from Frankish *blāu (“blue”) (perhaps through a Late Latin blāvus, blāvius (“blue”) attested from Isidore of Seville), from Proto-Germanic *blēwaz (“blue, dark blue”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlēw- (“yellow, blond, grey”).
Cognate with dialectal English blow (“blue”), Scots blue, blew (“blue”), North Frisian bla, blö (“blue”), Saterland Frisian blau (“blue”), Dutch blauw (“blue”), German blau (“blue”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish blå (“blue”), Icelandic blár (“blue”), Latin flāvus (“yellow”), French bleu (“blue”), Middle Irish blá (“yellow”). Doublet of blow.
Possibly related also to English blee (“colour”), from Old English blēo (“colour”); but direct derivatives of Proto-Germanic *blēwaz (“blue, dark blue”) in Old English include: Old English blāw and blēo (“blue”), Old English blǣwen (“bluish, light-blue”), blǣhǣwen (“blue-coloured, bluish, violet or purple colour”, literally “blue-hued”). There seems to be a parallel connection in Germanic between words for blue and colour, dually exemplified by Proto-West Germanic *blīu (“colour, blee”) and *blāu (“blue”); and Proto-Germanic *hiwją (“colour, hue”) and *hēwijaz (“blue, purple”).
The sense "obscene, pornographic" is apparently from the colour; various theories exist as to how it arose, including that it is from the colour of the envelopes used to contain missives of the censors and managers to vaudevillian performers on objectionable material from their acts that needed to be excised.
Senses: examples: text: Lady Penrhyn was quite handsome enough to have spared one ingredient in her cup of fascination, but, unfortunately, having been married in her teens, she expected to live in them, and, never being reminded by the trials to which her sex is subject, of the flight of years, and the inroads of suffering, expected time to stand still, and the first bloom of existence (the blue on the plum) to remain as stationary as her own taste, for the pleasures of flirtation.
ref: 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 204:
text: She watches the yachts in the creamy evening blues.
ref: 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN:
text: Red No. 3, red No. 40, blue No. 2 and green No. 3 all have been linked with cancer or tumors in animals. Other sources say red No. 40 and yellow No. 5 and No. 6 contain or may be contaminated with known carcinogens.
ref: 2025 March 29, Kristen Rogers, “Over half of US states are trying to eliminate food dyes. Here’s what you can do now”, in CNN:
glosses: The colour of the clear sky or the deep sea; the colour midway between green and violet in the visible spectrum and one of the primary additive colours.
examples: text: I don't like red Smarties. Have you got a blue?
glosses: Anything coloured blue, especially to distinguish it from similar objects differing only in colour.
glosses: A blue dye or pigment.
examples: text: The boys in blue marched to the pipers.
glosses: Blue clothing.
glosses: Blue clothing.
A blue uniform. See blues.
examples: Come on, you blues!
glosses: Blue clothing.
A member of a sports team that wears blue colours; (in the plural) a nickname for the team as a whole. See also blues.
examples: He was safe! Terrible call, blue!
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Blue clothing.
An umpire, in reference to the typical dark-blue colour of the umpire's uniform. Sometimes perceived by umpires as derogatory when used by players or coaches while disputing a call.
examples: He excelled at rowing and received a blue in the sport at Oxford.
glosses: Blue clothing.
Sporting colours awarded by a university or other institution for sporting achievement, such as representing one's university, especially and originally at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England. See also full blue, half blue.
examples: He was a rugby blue at Cambridge.
glosses: Blue clothing.
A person who has received such sporting colours.
examples: text: He dialed Kathy to be sure she was okay and see if the blues arrived. She was crying when she picked up the phone.
“Kathy, honey, I'm here. It'll be okay. Are the police there?”
ref: 2022, Jim Malloy, Die, Mother Goose, Die:
glosses: Blue clothing.
A member of law enforcement.
glosses: Blue clothing.
A bluestocking.
examples: text: The balloon floated up into the blue.
text: His request for leave came out of the blue.
glosses: The sky, literally or figuratively.
glosses: The ocean; deep waters.
examples: text: The problem with buffalo as well as most African antelopes as a steady diet is that they have very little marbling or body fat and, after six months out in the blue, one dreams at night of a T-bone steak sizzling in great globules of yellow fat.
ref: 1978, Peter Hathaway Capstick, Death in the Long Grass, →ISBN:
ref: 2000, Thomas C. Barger, Timothy J. Barger, Out in the Blue: Letters from Arabia, 1937 to 1940 : a Young American Geologist Explores the Deserts of Early Saudi Arabia, →ISBN:
glosses: The far distance; a remote or distant place.
examples: text: On average, blues and other dilutes have weaker coats and skin problems seem more prevalent in the dilutes.
ref: 2000, Joe Stahlkuppe, American Pit Bull Terrier Handbook, page 131:
glosses: A dog or cat with a slaty gray coat.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
snooker
sports
glosses: One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of five points.
topics: biology
entomology
natural-sciences
glosses: Any of the butterflies of the subfamily Polyommatinae in the family Lycaenidae, most of which have blue on their wings.
examples: text: When snow falls on the roses, when a mako is beheaded, when the weaks and blues swim south
ref: 1974 February 2, Roger Frye, “Warm Heart”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 32, page 20:
text: Blues are about as vicious a fish as you'll find on the Atlantic seaboard — they will continue to slash through schools of bait even after they have eaten so much that they're constantly regurgitating shredded baitfish.
ref: 2012, Lenny Rudow, Rudow's Guide to Fishing the Mid Atlantic, page 102:
glosses: A bluefish.
examples: text: "I had a blue with Dad," said Fay. "He wanted to drive us, I wanted to walk."
ref: 2004, Tim Winton, The Turning (short stories), Picador UK Paperback edition 2006. Short story, 'Small Mercies' (at p.91)
text: If they had a blue between themselves, they kept it there, it never flowed out onto the streets to innocent people — like a lot of things that have been happenin′ on the streets today.
ref: 2008, Cheryl Jorgensen, The Taint, page 135:
text: On another occasion, there was a blue between Henry Daniels and Merv Wilson down at the pig sale. I don′t know what it was about, it only lasted a minute or so, but they shook hands when it was over and that was the end of it.
ref: 2009, John Gilfoyle, Remember Cannon Hill, page 102:
text: I was a bit disappointed. Was that it? No abuse like Lord Byron had endured? Not that I was wishing that upon myself. It was just that a blue between my parents, albeit a raging, foul, bile-spitting hate fest, was not exactly Charles Dickens.
ref: 2011, Julietta Jameson, Me, Myself and Lord Byron, unnumbered page:
glosses: An argument or brawl.
examples: text: It was applied methodically, carefully, resolutely, as in the fashion of a Satin-bird with charcoal, desiccated wood or blue from laundry-bags.
ref: 1948, Alec H. Chisholm, Bird Wonders of Australia, page 13:
synonyms: blueing#Noun
bluer#English:_blueing for laundry
glosses: A liquid with an intense blue colour, added to a laundry wash to prevent yellowing of white clothes.
glosses: Any of several processes to protect metal against rust.
examples: text: Lord Lyttelton's Life by Dr Johnson […] which a whole tribe of Blues, with Mrs Montagu at their Head, have Vowed to execrate and revenge […]
ref: 1781, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 172:
glosses: A type of firecracker.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: One of the three colour charges for quarks.
examples: text: He is a true blue.
topics: government
politics
glosses: A member or supporter of the Conservative Party.
examples: text: "No, just get over here. You need to try this one!" she exclaimed as she cheesed up a chunk of bread with one of our blues.
ref: 2005, J. B. Dann, Anecdotal, page 233:
text: Blues are made via the introduction of molds from the genus Penicillum roqueforti, which are normally added to the milk toward the beginning of the cheesemaking process.
ref: 2012, Culture Magazine, Laurel Miller, Thalassa Skinner, Cheese For Dummies (page 55)
glosses: A blue cheese.
examples: text: Improvising freely, he entered the stage with a karaoke set and introduced himself as a 'Bohemian street performer', before launching into a series of clubstyle gags and one-liners, promising 'a bit of blue for the Dads'[…]
ref: 2009 February 25, S. Purcell, Popular Shakespeare: Simulation and Subversion on the Modern Stage, Springer, →ISBN, page 51:
text: Fuzz grinned and nodded at the stage. 'Bit of blue for the lads.' […] The stage was dimly lit, and populated by Nubian slaves and harem girls in artfully draped deshabille.
ref: 2014 February 5, Charlie Flowers, Kill Order, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 176:
glosses: Risqué or pornographic material.
Synonyms: word: azure
word: blue
word: cerulean
word: indigo
word: navy
word: royal
word: sky blue
word: ultramarine
word: aqua
word: aquamarine
word: cyan
word: teal
word: turquoise
Hypernyms: word: color
word: hue
word: pigment
Related terms: word: cobalt
word: cornflower
word: denim
word: lapis lazuli
word: periwinkle
word: sapphire
word: red
word: orange
word: yellow
word: green
word: violet
word: white