We use the color blue to refer to immoral behavior, in phrases such as blue movie (pornography), blue laws, and swearing a blue streak.

Why blue, rather than some other color?

I've always wondered that. Seems to me more logical to choose red. I mean, it's the color of Satan, right?

Actually, the OED says "to talk a blue streak", meaning a constant stream of words, so "to swear a blue streak" simply means a constant stream of swear words, and the "blue" doesn't have a negative meaning.

As for "blue law", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law says that the term "blue" was used disparagingly to those who observed rigid moral codes, "bluenoses". A "bluenose" is either a "puritanical person" or more recently an inhabitant of Nova Scotia. I'm not sure where "blue" comes to describe them.

The term "blue movie" seems to be related to the previous, as a movie that would be banned by a "blue law". So, the first two examples are connected, relating to the term for Puritans, and the third is unrelated. If we could figure out why we call Puritans "bluenoses", we could answer the question.

You also have "blue blood" and "blue collar", which are opposites, but I don't think either of these are related.

quote:

Originally posted by Seanahan:
A "bluenose" is either a "puritanical person" or more recently an inhabitant of Nova Scotia. I'm not sure where "blue" comes to describe them.

If we could figure out why we call Puritans "bluenoses", we could answer the question.

This might help...
Canadian Oxford Dictionary
Bluenose 1. Cdn. informal a Nova Scotian 2. U.S. a puritanical or prudish person. [origin unknown: variously explained as referring to fishermen's noses blue from cold, to the name of a potato with a blue protuberance, or to Scots Presbyterians referred to as 'true blue' in the 17th cent.]



The Nova Scotians might have got the nickname through the Presbyterian connection. Nova Scotia is, after all, New Scotland and the early settlers were predominantly Scots and, therefore, presumably Presbyterians. The Puritans weren't Presbyterians, but the Presbyterians were somewhat puritanical.

I enjoyed writing this limerick for OEDILF:

On this blue day my mood is blue, too...
Perhaps a new dress of that hue
Or an e-mail from out
Of the blue that's about
A few blue jokes that aren't very blue?

Am I the only one who now sees a relationship between the word "blue" and the connotation of being gay? I seem to be thinking that it's a term that's been adopted or commandeered by the Gay community. No?

I thought that was pink?

I thought it was lavenender.

Asa the blue-nosed redneck