Color Idioms Part 4 - blue

Today we're going to continue our color idioms series by talking about the color:

BLUE

This color is usually associated with depression.

You look blue. What's wrong?

I feel blue.

I got the blues.

So as you can see, it means to feel sad. This idiom even gave it's name to the popular American musical style called THE BLUES where people sing about what is making them sad.

Here's a video of a blues song:




Other expressions, that use blue include:

A blue blood meaning a member of the nobility or upper class.

His family are blue bloods. They've been rich forever.

Blue collar means working in manufacturing. This is because people who worked on the assembly line usually wore blue jumpsuits and people who worked in the office usually wore white shirts.

So office work = a white-collar job and factory work = a blue-collar job.

I don't want to work a blue-collar job, it's too tough!

Blue can also mean the sky, which gives us idioms like "out of the blue" or "like a bolt out of the blue". This means that something was a complete surprise/very unexpected just like a lightning bolt happening when the sky is clear blue~!

When he proposed it came like a bolt out of the blue!

Any questions?

Phil