Blue

subs. (common).—1.  A policeman formerly a beadle, or, indeed, a serving-man, traceable to Elizabethan days (see BLUEBOTTLE), the uniform seems to have been blue from time immemorial; the colour from the earliest times has been the badge of servitude. Pliny tells us blue was the colour in which the Gauls clothed their slaves; and, for many ages, blue coats were the liveries of servants, apprentices, and those in humble stations of life—to wit, the blue-clad beadles, the ‘varlets’ who wore the blue, the blue-coats boys, and even harlots, in a house of correction, wore blue as a dress of ignominy. The proverb quoted by Ray, ‘he’s in his better blue clothes,’ i.e., ‘he thinks himself wondrous fine, has reference to the livery of a servant. Also, collectively, THE BLUES, THE MEN IN BLUE, BLUE-BOYS, BLUE-BOTTLES, BLUE-DEVILS, ROYAL REGIMENT OF FOOT-GUARDS BLUE.

  d. 1631.  DONNE, Satires, i, 21. Come a velvet justice with a long Great train of BLEW COATS, twelve or fourteen strong.

  1609.  DEKKER, The Honest Whore [DODSLEY], Old Plays (REED), iii. 389. You proud varlets, you need not be ashamed to wear BLUE, when your master is one of your fellows. Ibid., The Belman of London, E. 3. The other act their parts in BLEW COATES, as (if) they were their serving men.

  1608.  MIDDLETON, A Trick to Catch the Old One, ii. There’s more true honesty in such a country serving-man, than in a hundred of our cloak companions. I may well call ’em companions, for since BLUE COATS have been turned into cloaks, one can scarce know the man from the master.—Ibid. Michaelmas Term. And to be free from the interruption of BLUE beadles, and other bawdy officers.

  1616.  JONSON, The Case is Altered, i. 2. Ever since I belonged to the BLUE ORDER.—Ibid., Mask of Christmas. In a BLEW COAT, serving-man like, with an orange, &c.

  1637.  NABBES, Microcosmus [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), ix. 161]. The whips of Furies are not half so terrible as a BLUE COAT.

  1836.  HOOD, A Row at the Oxford Arms.

  1877.  W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iv. 257. He would chatter gaily and enter with great gusto into the details of some cleverly executed ‘bit of business,’ or ‘bilking the BLUES,’—evading the police.

  1880.  GREENWOOD, The Help-Myself Society, in Odd People in Odd Places, 68. The ‘Help Yourselves’ are especially strong in instrumental music. They have a friend in Colonel Fraser, the head of the City police, and the excellent band of that branch of the force is at their service, and Sir E. Henderson shows himself to be at heart a ‘Help Yourself,’ by permitting the instrumental ‘BLUE BOYS’ belonging to several metropolitan divisions to spend a Saturday night there. Besides these, they have the Polytechnic orchestral band when it is required, and an excellent grand piano with a skilled player and accompanyist.

  1882.  BESANT, All Sorts and Conditions of Men, xliii. ‘You must now begin to think seriously about handcuffs and prison, and MEN IN BLUE.’

  1886.  G. A. APPERSON, Graphic, 30 Jan., 137. The police in recent times have been known as the BLUES and the MEN IN BLUE.

  2.  (licensed victuallers’).—In certain districts of Wales a compromise between the half-pint and the pint pot. It is not recognised as a legal measure by the authorities, but it has something like a status: there is no Board of Trade standard of the BLUE, and inspectors have no power to stamp measures of this denomination for use in trade, but the Board of Trade has pointed out to the local authorities that there is nothing in the Weights and Measures Act to prevent the use of the BLUE, or to make its possessor liable to penalties, always provided of course that the vessel is not used as a measure.

  3.  (common).—A scholar of Christ’s Hospital; a BLUE-COAT BOY. A blue drugget gown or body with ample skirts to it, a yellow vest underneath in winter time, small clothes of Russia duck, worsted yellow stockings, a leathern girdle, and a little black worsted cap, usually carried in the hand, was the ordinary dress of children in humble life during the reigns of the Tudors.

  1834.  W. TROLLOPE, Christ’s Hospital … with memoirs of Eminent BLUES [Title].

  1877.  W. H. BLANCH, The Blue-coat Boys, 33. To some extent it holds also with regard to Civil Engineers, amongst whom, however, one well-known name is that of a BLUE.

  4.  (old).—Short for BLUESTOCKING (q.v.), formerly a contemptuous term for a woman having or affecting literary tastes.

  1788.  BURNEY, Diary (1876), iv., 219. He was a little the more anxious not to be surprised to-night, but his being too tired for walking should be imputed to his literary preference of reading to a BLUE. At tea Miss Planta again joined us, and instantly behind him went the book; he was very right, for nobody would have thought it more odd, or more BLUE.

  1823.  BYRON, Don Juan, xi., 50. The BLUES, that tender tribe, who sigh o’er sonnets.

  1834.  SOUTHEY, The Doctor, lxxxix. Les Dames des Roches, both mother and daughter, were remarkable and exemplary women; and there was a time when Poictiers derived as much glory from those BLUE ladies as from the Black Prince.

  1845.  B. DISRAELI, Sybil; or, The Two Nations, 76. ‘But she was very clever …’ ‘Accomplished?’ ‘Oh, far beyond that …’ ‘A regular BLUE.’

  1853.  REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, I., 7. His Aunt Virginia was as learned a BLUE as her esteemed ancestress in the court of Elizabeth, the very Virgin Queen of BLUES.

  5.  (old).—Female learning or pedantry.

  1824.  BYRON, Don Juan, xvi., 47. She also had a twilight tinge of BLUE.

  6.  (university).—At Oxford and Cambridge a man is said TO GET HIS BLUE when selected as a competitor in inter-university sports. The Varsity colours are, for Oxford, dark blue; and for Cambridge, light blue: cf. TO GET ONE’S SILK, said of a barrister when made King’s Counsel.

  Adj. (old).—1.  Applied in contempt to women of literary tastes: see BLUE-STOCKING; Fr. elle est bleue celle-là; en voilà une de bleue; je la trouve bleue.

  1788.  BURNEY, Diary (1876), iv., p. 219. Nobody would have thought it more odd or more BLUE.

  1834.  SOUTHEY, The Doctor, lxxxix. Les Dames des Roches, both mother and daughter were remarkable and exemplary women; and there was a time when Poictiers derived as much glory from those BLUE ladies as from the Black Prince.

  1839.  LEVER, Harry Lorrequer, xi. She was a little, a very little BLUE—rather a babbler in the ‘ologies’ than a real disciple.

  1842.  DICKENS, American Notes, iii., 333. BLUE ladies there are, in Boston; but like philosophers of that colour and sex in most other latitudes, they rather desire to be thought superior than to be so.

  1852.  F. E. SMEDLEY, Lewis Arundel, xxxiii. She had been growing decidedly BLUE. Not only had she, under Bray’s auspices, published a series of papers in Blunt’s Magazine, but she had positively written a child’s book.

  1864.  Spectator, No. 1875, 660. A clever, sensible woman, rather BLUE.

  2.  (venery).—Indecent; smutty (q.v.); obscene. [The dress of harlots under discipline (see BLUE-GOWN) was blue; cf., however, the French Bibliothèque Bleue, a series of books of questionable character.] See BROWN, Quakerish; serious; grave; decent.

  3.  (colloquial).—Gloomy; fearful; depressed; low-spirited e.g., TO LOOK BLUE: which also = to be confounded; surprised; astonished; annoyed; disappointed: Fr. en rester tout bleu; en être bleu; en bailler tout bleu; and baba from ébahi, astounded, BLUE FUNK, and IN THE BLUES: hence BLUELY = badly.

  c. 1600.  Robin Hood (RITSON), II., xxxvi., 84. It made the sunne LOOKE BLUE.

  1653.  URQUHART, Rabelais, IV. xxxv. He still came off but BLUELY.

  16[?].  T. BROWN, To Madam ——, in Works, i. 284. Our cavalier had come off but BLEWLY, had the lady’s rigour continu’d.

  1761.  WARD, England’s Reformation, i. 67.

  1754.  B. MARTIN, English Dictionary. BLUE, adj. … 2, blank, or cast down; as, he LOOKED BLUE upon it.

  1760.  T. WARTON, The Oxford Newsman’s Verses.

  1857.  A. TROLLOPE, The Three Clerks, xxviii. Charley replied, that neither had he any money at home. ‘That’s BLUE,’ said the man. ‘It is rather BLUE,’ said Charley.

  1848.  CARLYLE, The French Revolution, I., v. i. The cunningest engineers can do nothing, Necker himself, were he ever listened to, begins to LOOK BLUE.

  1862.  A. TROLLOPE, Orley Farm, I., 93. It’s BLUE; uncommon BLUE.

  1864.  YATES, Broken to Harness, I., 60. ‘My poor Charley!’ said the girl … ‘That certainly is a BLUE look-out,’ she continued—for however earnest was her purpose, she would not but express herself in her slang metaphor.

  1872.  S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, xl. I kept up my BLUE meditations.

  1874.  S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Gilded Age, xxvii. I had forgotten dear, but when a body gets BLUE, a body forgets everything…. I am sorry I was BLUE, but it did seem as if everything had been going against me for whole ages.

  1884.  Cornhill Magazine, Jan., 111. The prudent (and sagacious) officer looked BLUE. But he speedily recovered himself.

  Verb. (old).—To blush: also to disconcert.

  1709.  STEELE and SWIFT, Tatler, No. 71, 8. If a virgin blushes, we no longer cry she BLUES.

  1719.  MISSON, Travels over England, 169. King Edward III., who was deeply in love with the Countess of Salisbury, was very forward to take up a (blue) garter, which happen’d to drop from a lady’s leg while she was dancing at a ball: That this action set many of the company a laughing, which very much BLEW’D the Countess.

  2.  (common).—To pawn; to pledge; to spend; actually to get rid of money quickly: see BLEW: Fr. faire passer au bleu = dissipate, spend, or squander.

  1880.  Punch’s Almanac, 2. This top coat?—would BLUE IT.

  1887.  Punch, 10 Sept., iii. I never minds BLUEING the pieces purvided I gets a good spree.

  1896.  FARJEON, Betrayal of John Fordham, III, 280. ’Arf a quid was all I ’ad, and that was soon BLOOED.

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xxviii. You ’ve BLUED everythink, ’cept the gold what ’s in yer ’art.

  3.  (colloquial).—To miscalculate; to make a MESS (q.v.) of anything; to MULL (q.v.).

  4.  (thieves’).—To steal; to plunder. Hence TO BE BLUED = to be robbed: see PRIG.

  BY ALL THAT’S BLUE! phr. (common).—A euphemistic oath; ‘by Heaven!’ cf. Fr. parbleu = par Dieu.

  1840.  MARRYAT, Poor Jack, xxiii. ‘The black cat, by ALL THAT’S BLUE!’ cried the Captain.

  TILL ALL IS BLUE, phr. (common).—To the utmost; to the end; for an indefinite period. [SMYTH, Sailor’s Word Book:—‘borrowed from the idea of a vessel making out of port and getting into deep water.’]

  1835.  HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 2 S., xix. [The land] could be made to carry wheat till ALL’S BLUE again. Ibid., 3 S., xx. Your mother kickin’ and screamin’ till ALL WAS BLUE again.

  1850.  F. E. SMEDLEY, Frank Fairlegh, I., 184. I’ll have at her again, and dance TILL ALL’S BLUE before I give in.

  1901.  People, 7 April, 13, 2. And argue in a didactic, not to say opinionated, manner till ALL WAS BLUE.

  2.  (common).—Exceeding tipsy: see SCREWED and cf. Fr. avoir un coup d’bleu (= to be slightly tipsy).

  1614.  R. C., The Times’ Whistle [E.E.T.S.], 60, l. 1835.

  1638.  FORD, The Lady’s Trial, iv., 2. We can drink TILL ALL LOOK BLUE.

  1837.  R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (A Lay of St. Dunstan).

  TO MAKE THE AIR BLUE, verb. phr. (common).—To curse; to swear; to use obscene language: also, in a milder sense, to talk slang.

  TRUE BLUE, phr. (colloquial).—Faithful; genuine; real blue is the colour of constancy, and COVENTRY BLUE a dye that would neither change its colour nor be discharged by washing. Also (proverbial) ‘TRUE BLUE will never stain.’

  1383.  CHAUCER, Squieres Tale.

  16[?].  Lines beneath an Old Portrait.

  18[?].  New York Tribune [BARTLETT]. The BLUEST description of old Van Rensselaer Federalists have followed Colonel Prentiss (in Otsego County).