blue

[Archived Topic]

I would like to know the origin of the word blue. Did it ever mean anything other than the color it describes.

Submitted by Peggy Gramarossa (West Allis - U.S.A.)

[Jonathon Green]

Middle English (mid-11C-mid-15C) has 'blew', and Old French 'bleu', and blue's origins and parallels can be found there and in a number of Romance languages (e.g. early forms of Portuguese/Spanish/Italian/Medieval Latin). There was an Anglo-Saxon 'bláw' but this apparently faded prior to Middle English, which drew more on Old Norse 'blá', in sense of ‘lividus’, leaden-coloured, and French 'bleu' in sense of ‘cæruleus’, sky-blue.