As everybody knows, a “blizzard” is a great big snow storm. What everybody may not know is that “blizzard” is a made-up word. In 1870 there was a great big snow storm in Estherville, Ohio, of all places. It was a late-season storm that happened on March 14. It was evidently quite an impressive storm, because the editor of the Northern Vindicator, the local newspaper, decided he needed a new word just to describe it. His name was O. C. Bates, and the word he used (nobody is quite sure whether he invented it or had heard it somewhere) was “blizzard.” It’s probably based on either the German word “blitz” (lightning, even though there’s no record of the March 14 storm including lightning) or “bliz,” which in some English dialects meant “violent action.”
If you’re caught in a blizzard, or otherwise get very uncomfortably cold, you might claim that you’re “turning blue.” This is based on actual fact, since if you get cold enough your body redirects blood circulation to protect your vital organs, and as a result your lips, fingers, and the like can turn slightly blue. But the color blue has been used in language probably more than any other color. Members of the upper class are sometimes called “blue bloods.” This comes from an old Spanish belief that the blood of aristocrats was more blue than other people’s. In England, any official report from Parliament is called a “blue book,” for the simple reason that the reports are traditionally bound with a blue cover. (By the way, the term “white paper” comes from the practice of issuing preliminary reports without covers.)
In colonial New England there were “blue laws.” These laws tended to be very strict, but focused on matters we would today consider trivial. For example, there were “blue laws” about when certain shops were allowed to be open, how people were expected to dress, and so forth. The laws were first enacted by colonists in New Haven, which today is part of Connecticut, and they were eventually called “blue” because that was the color used more than any other by the Presbyterian church. It may also have been a reference to politics back in England, because the pro-Parliament party at the time was known as “true blue,” and the Presbyterians tended to be members of that party.
The phrase “once in a blue moon” means “hardly ever.” This may be because nobody ever saw the moon turn blue — but it also might be because once in a great while the moon actually does appear blue. The effect can be produced by ash or smoke in the atmosphere, as when there’s been a large volcanic eruption or there’s a lot of smoky fog in the air (which for a long time was the common state of the air in London).
The first prize in a contest — as well as anything very special, whether it’s a contest or not — is often referred to as a “blue ribbon.” There are “blue ribbon panels,” “blue ribbon juries,” and, of course, actual blue ribbons. The whole idea goes back to Medieval times in both England and France. In England, when you were awarded the title “Knight of the Garter,” you received a blue ribbon that you would wear, oddly enough, on your knee (although it might make more sense if you think about a knight sitting on a horse; in that case his knees are closer to eye level for pedestrians). In France they also had knights, and the best kind of knight you could be was a Knight of the Grand Cross. And sure enough, what you got for that was a blue ribbon to wear.
A person from Nova Scotia, Canada, can be casually called a “blue nose” — they use the term themselves. Not only that, but the fleet of large oceangoing ferries that serve Nova Scotia have for years been called the “Blue Nose” ships. “Blue nose” comes from what was once the major crop exported from Nova Scotia: “bluenose” potatoes, which really are blue on one end.
A person — originally only a woman, but eventually the term included men as well — who was overly pendantic and tiresome to talk to used to be called a “blue stocking.” This goes all the way back to Venice, around 1400, when the “Della Calza” society was organized (it included both genders). It’s not clear how official it was, but the members tended to wear blue stockings (although in those days only the men’s blue stockings might have been visible). Besides the blue stockings, the society was known for the education of its members. The idea of such an organization spread to Paris in 1590, and then in 1750 some women in England revived the idea by forming the “Basbleu Club.” It was also open to both men and women as long as they were well educated, and they also wore blue stockings. The English version of the society created quite a ruckus with their stockings because blue, at that time, tended to be a color worn only by the lower classes and servants. Possibly in defense, the women in the club made it their business to always be very serious in conversations (it’s not clear why just wearing a different color wasn’t an option). If you’re going to be unremittingly serious, it’s probably only a matter of time before you’re debating the fine points of, say, English grammar or the number of angels that can fit on the head of a pin. As a result, “blue stocking” came to mean an insufferable bore.
