English blues!

Warning - Discretionary Content:This article may contain material that is either inappropriate or offensive to some audiences.

One of the three primary colors, Blue is the color of the sky and the waters. Many ancient cultures considered it to be the color of the gods. In fact the Egyptian god Amun (patron God of wind, sun, and later on the highest god) was said to have blue-colored skin. Blue is also the symbol of faithfulness as is symbolised by the blue-colored flowers, the ‘forget-me-nots’.

Blue is considered to be cool, calm and friendly but at the same time it can convey strength, importance and confidence without being too overbearing or serious. In fact dark blue has always been associated with the corporate world and is a symbol of smartness, conservatism, power, security and stability.

And for those who easily get the ‘blues’, here’s some help. It has been proved that due to its positive connotation, unpleasant things written in blue are more easily accepted. So I guess it’s time to rephrase the expression ‘drive away the blues’ as ‘drive away the blues, with blues’.


Here are some words, phrases and expressions that are true-blue.

Blue film – pornographic films
Blue, as mentioned above, is a symbol of many things. Interestingly it is also connected to rulings on obscene or moral matters. For instance in the late eighteenth century, a preacher put up a book of laws called the ‘blue laws’. These were laws that had to be enforced, with brutality if necessary. And soon a blue law became any law that was very strict and conservative in its outlook. Thus when adult movies were banned under the blue laws, such movies started being called ‘blue films’, probably to spite the enforcers and the name soon caught on.
Another theory is that prostitutes in prison might have worn blue dresses; also striptease acts may have once used blue spotlights while another source suggests that a series of vulgar French books called ‘Bibliotéque Blue’ may have been the origin for the name. But it is likely that the expression is a result of more than one of the above reasons.

Blue-chip - a high investment quality stock or a constantly successful & profitable company
The word has its origin in poker, which is usually played using red, white and blue chips. The red chips are the cheapest while the blue chips are the most expensive. When the stock exchange came into being, the meaning of blue chips was transferred to those stocks that were very reliable and performed consistently.
It is ironical that the term blue chip is used in poker and in stocks, as for most people, both are means of gambling and losing money.

Blue-collar – manual, technical or industrial worker
A blue-collar worker is a manual or technical laborer, generally working in a factory or as a tradesman as compared to a ‘white collared’ worker, who does non-manual work in an office.
The origin of the term is from the clothing that the workers wore. The blue-collared workers wore work clothes that included navy blue colored shirts and were meant for rough use. These clothes were tougher than normal and also generally doubled-up as protective clothing.
And since the white-collared workers did not have to dirty their clothes, they would wear white-colored shirts.

Blueprint - photographic prints, depicting dimensions, spatial arrangements, and functions in white on a blue background and used for copies of documents like architectural plans, mechanical drawings etc.

Sayings & Expressions:

A Bolt from the blue / out of the blue
The sayings ‘a bolt from the blue’ or ‘out of the blue’ mean unexpectedly. It is actually derived from the expression ‘a thunderbolt from a clear blue sky'.
In mythology, a thunderbolt was a weapon of many of the gods including Thor or Jove (the Gods of war) and a bolt from the sky was a bolt from their weapons. During a thunderstorm, which was thought to be a battle between the gods, it was natural to expect thunderbolts, but a bolt during a clear bright-blue sky would be unexpected, hence the saying.
‘Out of the blue’ is a similar expression, which means, a thunderbolt out of the blue.

Between the devil and the deep blue sea
The expression, which stands for a dilemma in the choice between two equally difficult alternatives, has a nautical origin. The devil stood for a gap between planks that was difficult to make watertight. It was essential that these - the devil to get at - seams be filled up, else the sea would fill up the ship.

Blue-blooded
The expression, which stands for nobility or aristocracy, has its origins in ancient Spain, where certain families considered themselves to be superior on account of the blueness of their veins and from that the blood that ran through them.
Of course the only reason for them being so blue was that they were very pale and thus the normally blue veins showed even more clearly under their skins as compared to people with darker skins.

Once in a blue moon
Initially, the expression symbolised anything that was completely absurd or was not possible. The rationale was that ‘like the moon that would never be blue, the fact that one was arguing about, could never be true’.
Ironically, there have been instances when the moon has turned blue, dust particles during massive storms, volcanic eruptions or forest fires can cause the moon to appear blue. For instance, when a volcano erupted in Indonesia in 1883, the dust thrown out resulted in the moon appearing blue for nearly two years. So it is quite probable that the expression did directly come from the fact that the moon turned blue, ‘once in a blue moon’.