Etimology
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 Medieval Latin blāvus, blāvius (“blue”)), 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)
Of a blue hue.
(informal) Depressed, melancholic, sad.
Having a bluish or purplish shade of the skin due to a lack of oxygen to the normally deep red blood cells.
Pale, without redness or glare; said of a flame.
(politics) Supportive of, run by (a member of), pertaining to, or dominated by a political party represented by the colour blue.
(astronomy) Of the higher-frequency region of the part of the electromagnetic spectrum which is relevant in the specific observation.
(of steak) Extra rare; left very raw and cold.
(of a dog or cat) Having a coat of fur of a slaty gray shade.
(archaic) Severe or overly strict in morals; gloomy.
(archaic, of women) literary; bluestockinged.
(particle physics) Having a color charge of blue.
(informal) Risqué; obscene; profane; pornographic.
(slang, dated) Drunk.
Examples
the deep blue sea
“Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”
"Will you play some of the 'Garden' now?" she asked. "I think I should like it. I'm just the least bit blue."
But I'm bluer than blue / Sadder than sad.
My hands were blue with cold.
The divers got them out of the car just in time – they were starting to turn blue.
The candle burns blue.
I live in a blue constituency. Congress turned blue in the mid-term elections.
Illawarra turns blue in Liberal washout
blue and sour religionists; blue laws
Some of the ladies were very blue and well informed, reading Mrs. Somerville and frequenting the Royal Institution; others were severe and Evangelical, and held by Exeter Hall.
His material is too blue for prime-time
The air was blue with oaths.
a blue movie
My wine I drank and oft got blue / On brandy, gin and whisky too— / Until my reputation gay, / Along with care, was cast away —
Related words
synonyms
(color): 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 "having blue as its colour charge"): antiblue
noun
blue (countable and uncountable, plural blues)
(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.
Anything coloured blue, especially to distinguish it from similar objects differing only in color.
A blue dye or pigment.
(uncountable) Blue clothing.
The sky, literally or figuratively.
The ocean; deep waters.
The far distance; a remote or distant place.
A dog or cat with a slaty gray coat.
(snooker) One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of five points.
(entomology) Any of the butterflies of the subfamily Polyommatinae in the family Lycaenidae, most of which have blue on their wings.
A bluefish.
(Australia, colloquial) An argument or brawl.
A liquid with an intense blue colour, added to a laundry wash to prevent yellowing of white clothes.
Any of several processes to protect metal against rust.
(British) A type of firecracker.
(particle physics) One of the three color charges for quarks.
(UK) A member or supporter of the Conservative Party.
Examples
blue:
other blue:
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 to remain as stationary as her own taste, for the pleasures of flirtation.
She watches the yachts in the creamy evening blues.
I don't like red Smarties. Have you got a blue?
The boys in blue marched to the pipers.
Come on, you blues!
He was safe! Terrible call, blue!
He excelled at rowing and received a blue in the sport at Oxford.
He was a blue in rugby at Cambridge.
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?”
The balloon floated up into the blue.
His request for leave came out of the blue.
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.
On average, blues and other dilutes have weaker coats and skin problems seem more prevalent in the dilutes.
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.
"I had a blue with Dad," said Fay. "He wanted to drive us, I wanted to walk."
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.
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.
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.
Synonyms: blueing, bluer
It was applied methodically, carefully, resolutely, as in the fashion of a Satin-bird with charcoal, desiccated wood or blue from laundry-bags.
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 […]
He is a true blue.
verb
blue (third-person singular simple present blues, present participle blueing or bluing, simple past and past participle blued)
(ergative) To make or become blue; to turn blue.
(transitive, metallurgy) To treat the surface of steel so that it is passivated chemically and becomes more resistant to rust.
(transitive, laundry) To brighten by treating with blue (laundry aid).
(intransitive, Australia, slang) To fight, brawl, or argue.
Examples
Synonym: bluen
It blows, it snows,And blues your nose,My toes are all frost bittenThe weather wouldQuite starve the crows,Or freeze the part you sit on.
The dawn is wanly blueing.
Etimology
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)
(transitive, slang, dated) To spend (money) extravagantly; to blow.
Examples
They was willing to blue the lot and have nothing left when they got home except debts on the never-never.