There’s something about the color blue that’s a little different from other colors. I’m not sure what it is, but for some reason you can find more weird references to “blue” than any other color. Here are just a few of them.
“Blue murder” is an expression from the 1800s that means a cry of alarm or a vehement protest. In some places you might still hear a child having a tantrum described as “screaming blue murder.” Why is it blue? Nobody seems to know.
That’s not the case for “blue moon,” though. The phrase generally means something that hardly ever happens, as in “…once in a blue moon.” Nowadays there’s a general sense that there really is an astronomical event called a “blue moon” — it’s when there’s a second full moon in any given month. But that’s relatively recent, and oddly enough we know exactly where it came from — it’s based on a misunderstanding.
The Farmer’s Almanac, an annual publication in the US (it’s still around) had a tradition of naming the full moons in a given year. For example, the “Hunter’s Moon” is the one in October, and the “Harvest Moon” is the one in September. There are most commonly 12 full moons per year. But some years there are 13. 1937 was one of those years, and that year’s Farmer’s Almanac for some reason called the extra one the “blue moon.” After that, the idea that any “second blue moon in one month” was called a “blue moon” caught on, and seems today like an old tradition. But the phrase “once in a blue moon” came first. It’s been around since the 1500s and has always meant “something that (almost) never happens.”
Bluetooth is probably the most ridiculous name for a technical specification ever. It’s from the late 1990s, and as you probably know, it’s a spec for a low-power radio signal used to enable electronic communication over short distances. It was proposed by a consortium of companies (IBM, Ericsson, Nokia, Intel, and Toshiba), and it was called “Bluetooth” after the tenth-century Danish king Harald, who probably had a bad tooth that was black (or very dark blue), but in spite of that managed to get a bunch of warring factions to put aside their differences. Just like modern megacorporations.
Corporations are not so much involved in “bluejacking”, though. That’s a way to exploit one of the aspects of Bluetooth — you can connect to any device that’s near enough, so as a prank, you can send anybody (you probably don’t even know who) any sort of message you want. It doesn’t work on all devices, by the way. This doesn’t seem to be as much fun as it was a few years ago, probably because nowadays it’s become impossible to shock anybody no matter what might be in a message.
A “blueblood” is an aristocrat — and we know where this expression comes from, too. It’s a translation of “sangre azul,” which is a Spanish phrase also describing aristocrats. It comes from the early 1800s, and supposedly is based on the idea that the blood of aristocrats was more blue than red — probably from their delicate and well-washed skin, which would have enabled their (blue) veins to be more visible than was the case in the “red bloods.” Or the “yellow bloods,” which was another category they used.
If you ventured into an American diner, particularly between the 1920s and the early 1960s, you could almost certainly order the “blue plate special.” Supposedly this came from the manufacturers of dinner plates, who for unknown reasons tended to make blue plates more available than other colors at the time. A “blue plate special” was whatever the diner’s cook decided they were serving that night, and you couldn’t make any substitutions.
Another technological version of “blue” is the “Blu-Ray,” a storage format that uses an optical disc like a DVD, but with higher-density storage so one disc can hold a longer movie. Supposedly “Blu-Ray” refers to the color of the laser used to read the data, but really it’s a violet laser, not blue. Maybe “Vi-Ray” didn’t sound as cool.
“Blue laws” were common in New England states starting a couple centuries ago; they tended to be “morality” laws about when you could purchase liquor, what women were allowed to wear, and other nonsense. Nobody is quite sure why they were called “blue.” There’s a theory that the laws were printed on blue paper, but nobody has ever found a single copy of anything like that, so it’s probably just a story. “Blue” has another connection with morality because “going blue,” among comedians, used to refer to telling off-color jokes. But there again, it’s a mystery why a color is involved.
You can “feel blue,” which is synonymous with sadness. This dates back to the 1400s, and is probably where “the blues” (as music) comes from, but once again, why blue? Another mystery.
If you’re not content with doing your environmental bit by joining the green revolution, you can also make common cause with the blue revolution. That’s environmentalism that concentrates on water, and how to provide it in a safe and healthy way to everyone who needs it. After all, if you don’t have enough water, you’re going to be feeling blue, so you’ll try to use Bluetooth to order a Blue Plate Special from some blueblooded dining establishment. If that doesn’t work, you might just start screaming blue murder until you’re blue in the face.
