Why is a very rare steak called blue? The "black and blue" definition still doesn't quite define it - it's a cooking style that relies on the term "blue" to already exist ("black on the outside, blue on the inside") This, plus the fact that the French term is bleu as well, makes me feel this isn't the right etymological alley
Where did the phrase blue sky thinking come from? The true origin is what you’d expect in a business setting: In the early 20th century, “blue sky” was frequently applied to describe fraud — notably, financiers who would inflate and over-capitalize securities based on nothing more tangible than “blue sky and hot air ”
What is the origin of the term blue ruin for low-end gin? BLUE RUIN Gin Blue ribband: gin This 1811 updating of Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785, 1788, 1796) is the first in the series to include an entry for either "blue ruin" or "blue ribband" as a slang term for gin
Origin of blue for rude? - English Language Usage Stack Exchange The phrase “working blue” came into usage at the time If a representative of the Keith Orpheum circuit objected to the content of an act, a request to cut the material was sent backstage in a blue envelope So-called blue material was considered problematic enough that vaudeville listings in local papers noted which shows were “Clean
etymology - Why do we talk a blue streak? - English Language Usage . . . According to The Word Detective in all likelihood, the term did arise by analogy to the speed and force of a bolt of lightning, especially in “talk a blue streak,” meaning to speak rapidly and excitedly The “blue” in “curse a blue streak” probably also invokes “blue” in the sense of “obscene ” So it it is not really insulting when you say that somebody talks a blue streak
etymology - Origin of the of the phrase feeling blue - English . . . If you are sad and describe yourself as "feeling blue," you are using a phrase coined from a custom among many old deepwater sailing ships If the ship lost the captain or any of the officers during its voyage, she would fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along her entire hull when returning to home port Also, see Origins of Navy Terminology for other expressions
Why do we say that an obscene joke is off-color? Here is the definition of off color in Chapman Kipfer, Dictionary of American Slang, Third Edition (1995): off color adj phr by 1875 Somewhat salacious; risqué; =BLUE: a couple of off-color jokes Some of his observations were a bit off color That same reference reports that blue in the sense of "lewd, rude, suggestive" appeared in American English by 1840 The same sense of blue appears