Blue Definition
- smalt
- cornflower
- azulene
- zaffer
- bice
- blueness
- blueing
- bluing
- wild blue yonder
- blue air
- blue sky
- blue-angel
- amytal
- blue devil
- amobarbital-sodium
(metallurgy) To treat the surface of steel so that it is passivated chemically and becomes more resistant to rust.
A male nickname, occasionally used as a formal given name.
- At the point of extreme exasperation:
I argued with them until I was blue in the face.
- At a far distance; into the unknown:
spontaneously take a trip into the blue.
- From an unexpected or unforeseen source:
criticism that came out of the blue.
- At a completely unexpected time:
a long-unseen friend who appeared out of the blue.
- as if from the sky; without being expected or foreseen
- the sky
- the sea
Other Word Forms of Blue
Noun
Adjective
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Blue
- blue in the face
- into the blue
- out of the blue
- out of the blue
- the blue
Origin of Blue
-
From Middle English blewe, partially from Old English *blǣw ("blue"; found in derivative blǣwen (“bluish”)); and partially from Anglo-Norman blew, blef (“blue”), from Medieval Latin blāvus, blāvius (“blue”), from Old Frankish *blāw, *blāo (“blue”); both from Proto-Germanic *blēwaz (“blue, dark blue”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlēw- (“yellow, blond, grey”). Cognate with English dialectal blow (“blue”), Scots blue, blew (“blue”), North Frisian bla, blö (“blue”), Saterland Frisian blau (“blue”), Dutch blauw (“blue”), German blau (“blue”), Swedish blå (“blue”), Icelandic blár (“blue”), Latin flāvus (“yellow”), Middle Irish blá (“yellow”), Lithuanian blãvas (“blue”). Doublet of blae.
From Wiktionary
-
Middle English blue, bleu from Old French bleu of Germanic origin bhel-1 in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Related Articles
Find Similar Words
Find similar words to blue using the buttons below.