blue

blue

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of blue in English

English Online Dictionary. What means blue‎? What does blue mean?

English

Alternative forms

  • blew, blewe (obsolete)

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US, Canada) enPR: blo͞o, IPA(key): /bluː/
  • (Wales, Ottawa Valley) IPA(key): /blɪʊ̯/
  • (obsolete) enPR: blyo͞o, IPA(key): /bljuː/
  • Homophone: blew
  • Rhymes: -uː

Etymology 1

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”), 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. (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Adjective

blue (comparative bluer or more blue, superlative bluest or most blue)

  2. Of a blue hue.
  3. (informal) Depressed, melancholic, sad.
    Synonyms: miserable, unhappy; see also Thesaurus:sad
  4. Having a bluish or purplish shade to the skin due to a lack of oxygen to the normally deep-red red blood cells; cyanotic.
  5. (of a flame) Pale, without redness or glare.
  6. (politics) Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by a political party represented by the colour blue.
    1. (US politics) Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by the Democratic Party. [late 20th c.]
    2. (Australian politics) Supportive of or related to the Liberal Party.
    3. (UK politics) Supportive of or related to the Conservative Party.
  7. (astronomy) Of, dominated by, or shifted toward the higher-frequency, or "bluer", end of the electromagnetic spectrum.
  8. (particle physics) Having a colour charge of blue.
  9. (of steak) Extra rare; left very raw and cold.
    Synonym: (humorous) mooing
  11. (of a dog or cat) Having a coat of fur of a slaty gray shade.
  12. (archaic) Severe or overly strict in morals; gloomy.
  13. (archaic, of women) Literary; scholarly; bluestockinged.
  14. (informal) Risqué; obscene; profane; pornographic.
  15. (slang, dated) Drunk.
Synonyms
  • (colour): azure, cerulean, navy, sapphire
  • (pornographic): adult, X-rated; see also Thesaurus:pornographic
Antonyms
  • (antonym(s) of “of a blue hue”): nonblue, unblue
  • (antonym(s) of “pertaining to the US Democratic Party”): conservative, red, Republican
  • (antonym(s) of “dominated by higher-frequency electromagnetic radiation”): red
  • (antonym(s) of “having blue as its colour charge”): antiblue
Descendants
  • Tok Pisin: blu
  • → Fiji Hindi: bulu
  • → Shona: bhuluu
  • → Somali: buluug
  • → Swahili: bluu, buluu
  • → Tooro: bururu
Translations

Noun

blue (countable and uncountable, plural blues)

  1. (countable and uncountable) The colour of the clear sky or the deep sea which is midway between green and cyan in the visible spectrum and one of the primary additive colours.
  2. Anything coloured blue, especially to distinguish it from similar objects differing only in colour.
  3. A blue dye or pigment.
  4. (uncountable) Blue clothing.
    The boys in blue marched to the pipers.
    1. (in the plural) A blue uniform. See blues.
    2. A member of a sports team that wears blue colours; (in the plural) a nickname for the team as a whole. See also blues.
      Come on, you blues!
    3. (baseball, slang) 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.
      He was safe! Terrible call, blue!
    4. 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.
      He excelled at rowing and received a blue in the sport at Oxford.
    5. A person who has received such sporting colours.
      He was a blue in rugby at Cambridge.
    6. (slang) A member of law enforcement.
    7. (now historical) A bluestocking.
  5. The sky, literally or figuratively.
  6. The ocean; deep waters.
  7. The far distance; a remote or distant place.
  8. A dog or cat with a slaty gray coat.
  9. (snooker) One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of five points.
  11. (entomology) Any of the butterflies of the subfamily Polyommatinae in the family Lycaenidae, most of which have blue on their wings.
  13. A bluefish.
  14. (Australia, colloquial) An argument or brawl.
    • 2004, Tim Winton, The Turning (short stories), Picador UK Paperback edition 2006. Short story, 'Small Mercies' (at p.91):
      "I had a blue with Dad," said Fay. "He wanted to drive us, I wanted to walk."
  16. A liquid with an intense blue colour, added to a laundry wash to prevent yellowing of white clothes.
    Synonyms: blueing, bluer
  17. Any of several processes to protect metal against rust.
  18. (British) A type of firecracker.
  19. (particle physics) One of the three colour charges for quarks.
  20. (UK politics) A member or supporter of the Conservative Party.
  21. A blue cheese.
    • 2012, Culture Magazine, Laurel Miller, Thalassa Skinner, Cheese For Dummies (page 55)
      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.
  22. (slang, uncountable) Risqué or pornographic material.
Translations
Further reading
  • Blue (colour) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

blue (third-person singular simple present blues, present participle blueing or bluing, simple past and past participle blued)

  2. (ergative) To make or become blue; to turn blue.
    Synonym: bluen
  3. (transitive, metallurgy) To treat the surface of steel so that it is passivated chemically and becomes more resistant to rust.
  4. (transitive, laundry) To brighten by treating with blue (laundry aid).
  5. (intransitive, Australia, slang) To fight, brawl, or argue.
Translations

Derived terms

See also

  • (blues) blue; Alice blue, aqua, aquamarine, azure, baby blue, beryl, bice, bice blue, blue green, blue violet, blueberry, cadet blue, Cambridge blue, cerulean, cobalt blue, Copenhagen blue, cornflower, cornflower blue, cyan, dark blue, Dodger blue, duck-egg blue, eggshell blue, electric blue, gentian blue, ice blue, lapis lazuli, light blue, lovat, mazarine, midnight blue, navy, Nile blue, Oxford blue, peacock blue, petrol blue, powder blue, Prussian blue, robin's-egg blue, royal blue, sapphire, saxe blue, slate blue, sky blue, teal, turquoise, ultramarine, Wedgwood blue, zaffre (Category: en:Blues)
  • bluing (steel) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • Havasupai
  • primary colour
  • rainbow
  • RGB

Etymology 2

Uncertain; possibly from blew (past tense of blow).

Verb

blue (third-person singular simple present blues, present participle blueing or bluing, simple past and past participle blued)

  1. (transitive, slang, dated) To spend (money) extravagantly; to blow.

References

Anagrams

  • lube, Lebu, Buel, Ubel

Esperanto

Pronunciation

Adverb

blue

  1. bluely

Related terms

  • blua (“blue”)
  • blui (“to be blue”)
  • bluo (“the color blue”)

Bookmark
share
WebDictionary.net is an Free English Dictionary containing information about the meaning, synonyms, antonyms, definitions, translations, etymology and more.

Related Words

bluetooth

blues

Browse the English Dictionary

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

License

This article based on an article on Wiktionary. The list of authors can be seen in the page history there. The original work has been modified. This article is distributed under the terms of this license.