Chapter XV: Part 15

Blooming, often Bloomin’, ppl. adj. (common).—This word, similar in type to ‘blessed,’ ‘blamed,’ and other words of the kind, is, as used by the lower classes, a euphemism for bloody (q.v.), but it is also frequently employed as a mere meaningless intensitive. Like the last-named word, little count is taken of its exact primary meaning. Its slang use may be traced to that figurative sense of the orthodox word, which signifies ‘in the bloom of health and beauty,’ ‘in the prime,’ ‘flourishing,’ etc. Some uncertainty exists as to the origin of this not over-ornamental addition to our expletive vocabulary. If the word is used by Granvil (see quot.) in its modern sense, then the phrase is very much older than has hitherto been imagined. Barring this, it would seem that we are indebted for it to the Californian coast, although there is little doubt that the chief instrument in its acclimatization in England was Mr. Alfred G. Vance, the comic singer, well-known in connection with ‘Jolly dogs,’ and other extensively popular music-hall songs. As before stated, it has very largely supplanted ‘bloody’; bally (q.v.) is also used in the same manner. Its applications are manifold. One is requested not to make any blooming mistake or error; another ‘showing off,’ or ‘putting on side,’ is told not to be so blooming flash; an excessively stupid man is spoken of as a blooming idiot; and an inquisitive individual is told more forcibly than politely, perhaps, ‘you asks me no bloomin’ imper’int questions, an’ I tells yer no bloomin’ lies.’

1726. Rev. J. Granvil, Sadducismus triumphatus [under the head of
‘The Demon of Tedworth’ (1661). Granvil makes mention that on one
occasion the spirit came into a room panting like a dog, and]
company coming up, the room was presently filled with a blooming
noisome smell.

18(?). Colonel John Hay, Ballad, ‘The Mystery of Gilgal.’

He went for his ’leven inch bowie knife:
I tries to foller a Christian life,
But I’ll drop a slice of liver or two,
My bloomin’ shrub, with you.

1887. G. R. Sims, Dagonet Ballads (Told to the Missionary). ‘I
feels like a bloomin’ babby—I gets so infernal weak.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 222. ‘Afore that I
worked in the galleries, a making the casemates for the guns, and
blooming hard work it was.’

1882. Punch’s Almanac, p. 4. The Steam Launch in Venice (‘Sic
Transit Gloria Mundi’)—’Andsome ’Arriet: ‘Ow my! If it ’yn’t that
bloomin’ old Temple Bar, as they did aw’y with out o’ Fleet
Street!’ Mr. Belleville (referring to guide book): ‘Now it ’yn’t.
It’s the fymous Bridge o’ Sighs, as Byron went and stood on; ’im as
wrote ‘Our Boys,’ yer know!’ ’Andsome ’Arriet: ‘Well, I never!’

1880. Jas. Greenwood, Flyfaker’s Hotel, in Odd People in Odd
Places, p. 59. ‘Who’s got any music?’ presently exclaimed the dirty
scoundrel who had been mending the boxing-glove; ‘—— me, let’s have
a bloomin’ lark! Let’s have a tune and a song. Who’s got any
bloomin’ music?’

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xxxviii. ‘And if there’s
fire there ought to be nothen to stop us from cooking a bloomin’
old goat.’

1889. Ally Sloper, July 6. Injured Innocence: Indignant Son of
Labour. Well, I’m blowed! If that ’ere bloomin’ swell ain’t
a-himitatin’ me!

Bloss, subs. (old, and American thieves’).—A generic name for a woman, whether girl, wife, or mistress. Probably from an attributive sense of ‘blossom.’ For example, Shakspeare, in Titus Andronicus [1588, iv., 2, 72], employs it in the sense of one lovely and full of promise. ‘Sweet blowse you are a beautious blossome sure.’ Tennyson also [1847] in the Princess [v., 79] uses the expression, ‘My babe, my blossom, ah, my child!’ Cf., Blowen.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bloss (cant), the
pretended wife of a bully or shop-lifter.

1881. New York Slang Dictionary, ‘Slang Stories,’ p. 42. ‘Why,
Bell, is it yourself? Tip us your daddle, my bene mort. May I dance
at my death, and grin in a class-case, if I didn’t think you had
been put to bed with a shovel....’ ‘No, Jim, I only piked into
Grassville with a dimber-damber, who couldn’t pad the hoof for a
single darkman’s without his bloss to keep him from getting pogy.’

Blot the Scrip, verbal phr. (old).—To put an undertaking into writing; the modern phrase is ‘to put it in black and white.’ Hence

To blot the scrip and jark it (old), i.e., to stand engaged, or bound for anyone.—Grose. Jark means a seal, and in Oxford slang, a safe conduct pass; in the former sense it is retained in the patter of modern American thieves, a synonym being jasker. Jarkman is the name given in America to a begging letter writer, whose accomplishments in this respect are varied by the production of false characters for servants, and other documents of a kindred nature. This is a case, like many others, in which old English cant terms have, across the Atlantic, been invested with a new meaning. Formerly a jarkman was equivalent to an ‘Abram-man,’ i.e., a licensed beggar.

Bloviate, verb (American).—To talk aimlessly and boastingly; to indulge in ‘high falutin’. [A factitious word probably founded on the verb blow, sense 1, on the model of ‘deviate.’] Said to have been in use since 1850.

Blow, subs. (common).—1. A shilling.

Amongst Synonyms for this coin are beong; borde; button; deaner or deener; bob; bobstick (old slang); breaky-leg; gen (this forms part of the so-called back slang); hog; levy; peg; stag; teviss; twelver; touch-me (this is an abbreviated form of touch-me-on-the-nob, rhyming slang for bob or shilling); Abraham’s willing (also rhyming slang for a shilling).

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. But afterwards I got
3s. 9d., and then four blow. Ibid. I went to the Steel
(Bastile—Coldbath Fields Prison), having a new suit of clobber on
me and about fifty blow in my brigh (pocket).

1885. Daily Telegraph, Feb. 5, p. 2, col. 6. They said they could
sell some for five blows (shillings), and that he could easily make
£158 of the stuff.

2. (Old University.)—A drunken frolic; a spree. Cf., Blow-out, subs. For synonyms, see Jamboree.

Verb.—1. To boast; to brag; to ‘gas’—generally to talk boastfully or self-assertingly of oneself or one’s affairs. In this sense to blow, long dialectically current, is now regarded as slang. It is also associated with the idea of angry speech, ‘storming,’ ‘fuming.’ Cf., Blow up, and for synonyms, see Gas.

c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 97. Blouing veynly wip fleschli wit. [M.]

1519. Four Elements, in Hazl. Dodsley, I., 41. Why, man, what
aileth thee so to blow? [M.]

1785. Burns, Epistle to J. Lapraik, st. 16. I winna blaw about
mysel; As ill I like my fauts to tell.

1883. Graphic, Jan. 27, p. 79, col. i. The whole team has taught
Australia not to blow (as they say)—a not unneeded lesson.

1883. Mrs. Campbell Praed, Sketches of Australian Life, p. 45. ‘He
was famous for his coolness and daring, and for blowing, in
Australian parlance, both of his exploits and of his “bonnes
fortunes.”’

2. (general.)—To inform; to expose; to betray; to peach. Cf., also Blow upon and Blow the gab. [This is a transferred sense of blow = to breathe out; to give forth by breathing; hence, to sound a signal on an instrument; to blaze abroad as by a trumpet.] For synonyms, see Peach.

1575. Appius and Virg., in Hazl. Dodsley, IV., 136. Was all well
agreed? did nobody blow ye? [M.]

1721. Defoe, History of Colonel Jack. ‘As for that,’ says Will, ‘I
could tell it well enough, if I had it, but I must not be seen
anywhere among my old acquaintances, for I am blown, and they will
all betray me.’

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Blow (v.) ... also to discover
the secrets of another; also when a person undervalues or slights a
person or thing, he is said to blow upon it.

a. 1859. L. Hunt, Country Lodgings, in Casquet Lit. (1877), I., p.
42, col. 1. D—n me, if I don’t blow ... I’ll tell Tom Neville, [M.]

3. (American.)—To lie; and in a slightly less opprobrious sense to ‘gas’ so much as to be perilously near the border-line which separates boasting exaggeration from absolute untruth.

4. (general.)—Frequently employed euphemistically for ‘to damn’—generally in the imperative.—Blow it! i.e., ‘hang it’! or damn it! Cf., Blowed, with which it is closely allied in all senses.

1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. ii. ‘Well, if you won’t stand a
pot,’ quoth the tall man, ‘I will, that’s all, and blow
temperance.’

1883. Miss Braddon, Golden Calf, ch. xxvi. ‘Blow his station in
life! If he was a duke I shouldn’t want him.’

5. (general.)—To lose or spend money. Cf., Blue.

6. (University.)—To indulge in a frolic or spree. Cf., Blow out; also To go on the blow.

7. (Winchester School.)—To blush.

To bite the blow, phr. (old cant).—To steal goods; to Prig, which see for synonyms.

Blow a Cloud, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To smoke a cigar or pipe; Hotten says, ‘a phrase used two centuries ago’ but gives no authority, and Murray’s earliest example only dates from 1855, but as will be seen below, it occurs in Tom Crib in 1819.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 39.

... His fame I need not tell,
For that, my friends, all England’s loud with;
But this I’ll say, a civiller Swell
I’d never wish to blow a cloud with.

1870. M. Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. vii. And blowing suffocating
‘clouds’ and boisterously performing at dominoes in the
smoking-room at night.

French Synonyms. Tubons en une (popular: ‘let’s blow a cloud’; tuber = to smoke); piper; la fumerie (popular: smoking); faire du brouillard (‘to produce or make a fog or mist’); en bourrer une; bouffarder. A German Synonym is Esef schwächen, or schweihen.

Blow-Book, subs. (old).—A book containing indelicate or ‘smutty’ pictures.

1708. Post Man, 8 June. Last Sunday a person did pennance in the
Chapter-House of St. Paul’s, London, for publickly shewing in
Bartholomew Fair a book called a blow-book, in which were many
obscene and filthy pictures: the book was likewise burnt, and the
person paid costs.

Blowed. To be blowed, verb (familiar).—Blowed is here a euphemism for ‘damned’; to all intents and purposes, it is frequently little more than a thinly-veiled oath. Hotten says that Tom Hood used to tell the following story:—‘I was once asked to contribute to a new journal, not exactly gratuitously, but at a very small advance upon nothing—and avowedly because the work had been planned according to that estimate. However, I accepted the terms conditionally—that is to say, provided the principle could be properly carried out. Accordingly, I wrote to my butcher, baker, and other tradesmen, informing them that it was necessary, for the sake of cheap literature and the interest of the reading public, that they should furnish me with their several commodities at a very trifling per-centage above cost price. It will be sufficient to quote the answer of the butcher:—“Sir,—Respectin’ your note, Cheap literater be blowed! Butchers must live as well as other pepel—and if so be you or the readin’ publick wants to have meat at prime cost, you must buy your own beastesses, and kill yourselves.—I remain, etc., John Stokes.”’

Cf., Blow me!

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 50. Others remonstrating with
the said Thomas Sludberry, on the impropriety of his conduct, the
said Thomas Sludberry repeated the aforesaid expression, ‘You be
blowed.’

1863. Jeaffreson, Live It Down, III., p. 249. (Cries of ‘Chair,
Chair,’ and ‘Order, order.’) ‘Order be blowed!’ exclaimed the
infuriated Mr. H.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. II., ch. v. ‘Holiday be
blowed!’ said Fledgely, entering, ‘What have you got to do with
holidays?’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 244. ‘No,’ says
she, ‘we’ve got some more besides that, and enough, too, to take us
to France. Blowed, old man, if we don’t go to Paris, and there we
can get £300 for them.’

1879. Punch’s Almanac, p. 7. Seasonable Slang. For Spring.—You be
blowed! For Summer.—I’ll warm yer! For Autumn.—Not so blooming
green! For Winter.—An ice little game all round.

1889. Ally Sloper’s H. H., Aug. 3, p. 242, col. 2. ‘Blowed if I’d
have made her Mrs. Juggins, if I’d have known she wor going to make
a footstool of me!’

Blowen or Blowing, subs. (old.)—This word appears to have passed through a series of ups and downs in the course of its career. Originally signifying a woman, without special reference to moral character, it subsequently came to mean a showy courtesan, or a prostitute. It still retains the latter meaning, but is frequently used in a more complimentary sense than heretofore to signify a finely built handsome girl. In America among the criminal classes it is only used to designate a mistress. Its derivation is extremely uncertain, the two most important suggestions being that it comes (1) from the reputation having been ‘blown upon’; and (2) that in Wilts blowen signifies a blossom—hence blowen a flower; a pet.

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, I., in wks. (1720) IV., 17. What
ogling there will be between thee and the blowings!

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143. Blowen, a woman.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict. Blowen, a prostitute: a woman who
cohabits with a man without marriage.

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. ii. ‘If she’s a good girl, and
loves you, she’ll not let you spend your money on her.’ ‘I haint
such a ninny as that,’ said Beck, with majestic contempt. ‘I
’spises the flat that is done brown by the blowens.’

1848. C. Kingsley, Yeast, ch. xi. Why don’t they have a short
simple service now and then, that might catch the ears of the
roughs and the blowens, without tiring out the poor thoughtless
creatures’ patience, as they do now?

For synonyms in the sense of prostitute, see Barrack-hack.

Blower, subs. (old).—1. A girl; a contemptuous name in opposition to jomer (q.v.); given by Grose [1785].

2. (American and Colonial.)—A good talker; a boaster; a ‘gas-bag.’ Cf., Blow, verb, sense 1.

1863. Manhattan, in Evening Standard, 10 Dec. General Grant ... is
not one of the blower generals. [M.]

1864. Spectator, 22 Oct., 1202, col. 1. Notorious among our bar and
the public as a blower. [M.]

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 584. ‘You need not blow so, my
friend. I don’t believe a word of what you say.’ Hence also the
noun blower, a braggart, with special reference to his success in
imitating Baron Munchausen.

3. A pipe. Cf., Blow a cloud.

Blow Great Guns, verbal phr. (popular).—To blow a hurricane; a violent gale. Sometimes varied by to blow great guns and small arms.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 23. ‘Curse me, if I
don’t think all the world means to cross the Thames this fine
night!’ observed Ben. ‘One’d think it rained fares as well as
blowed great guns. Why, there’s another party on the stair-head
inquiring arter scullers; and, by the mass! they appear in a
greater hurry than any of us.’

1854. H. Miller, Sch. and Schm. (1858), 14. It soon began to blow
great guns. [M.]

Blowhard, subs. (American).—A Western term of revilement, the precise meaning of which it would be difficult to explain, since a newcomer may, in one and the same breath, be called a blarsted Britisher, a Coyote, and a blowhard. If all these are synonymous, then indeed the Englishman in America is in a bad way. Cf., Blower, sense 2.

Blow Hot and Cold, verbal phr. (familiar).—To be treacherous; inconsistent; vacillating. There is an allusion in the expression to one of Æsop’s fables.

1577. W. Bullinger, Decades (1592), 176. One which out of one
mouth, doeth blowe both hoat and colde. [M.]

1756. The World, No. 185. This old fellow is of a most capricious,
unequal temper, and, like the satyr in the fable, blows hot and
cold in the same breath.

1856. Motley, Dutch Rep., V., v., 750. Being constantly ordered ‘to
blow hot and cold with the same breath.’

Blowing Up, subs. (colloquial).—A scolding; a severe reprimand; a jobation.—See Blow up. The French equivalent is affres (fem. pl.), i.e., ‘agonies.’

1839. Haliburton, Letter-Bag Gt. West, IV., 42. I would give him a
good blowing-up. [M.]

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. xxv., p. 448. The
waves dashed over the pier, ducking the three or four venturesome
spirits who went on there. I was one—and received a good blowing up
from Mr. Brandon for my pains.

Blow in One’s Pipe, verbal phr. (American).—A transatlantic equivalent of to blow or blew [one’s money]; i.e., to spend it.

Blow Me! Blow Me Up! Blow Me Tight! intj. phr. (popular).—Expressions which, like blowed (q.v.), serve either as half-veiled oaths or as merely big sounding but meaningless exclamations.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 48. ‘Blow me up (says he) if
I have had a fellow with such rum toggys cross my company these
many a day.’

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress.

Says Bill ‘there’s nothing like a Bull
And blow me tight’—Bill Gibbons ne’er
In all his days was known to swear,
Except light oaths, to grace his speeches,
Like ‘dash my wig’ or ‘burn my breeches,’
‘Blow me——’

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 25. Here
blow me, I’ll do such a thing I never did before, I’ll say
thirty—yes, thirty shillings buys the lot, and I’ll have no more
nor take no less.

Blow One’s Bazoo, verbal phr. (American).—To boast; to swagger; to gasconade. [From the Dutch bazu, an abbreviation of bazuin, a trumpet; hence an equivalent of the English ‘to blow one’s own trumpet’.]

Blow Oneself Out, verb (common).—To eat heartily; to gorge oneself.—See Blow out.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Babes in the Wood).

In the dog-days, don’t be so absurd
As to blow yourselves out with green-gages!

Blow Out, subs. (common).—A gluttonous feast, a heavy ‘feed,’ or entertainment. Also called a Tuck in, which see for synonyms. Cf., Blow oneself out.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, II., 264. ‘She sent me a card for
her blow-out,’ said Mowbray, ‘and so I am resolved to go.’

1847. Th. Hook, Man of Many Friends. The giving good feeds is, with
many of these worthies, the grand criterion by which the virtues
and talents of mankind are measured ... these persons call a
similar favour either a ‘spread’ or a ‘blow-out.’

1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. viii. ‘Get us hot water,
and sugar, and cigars, and plenty of the real stuff, and we’ll have
a blow-out.’

Verb (thieves’).—To steal. For synonyms, see prig.

Blowse, Blowsy, Blouze, Blowzy, subs. (old).—1. A beggar’s trull; a wench.

2. A slatternly woman, especially one with dishevelled hair. Thought to be of canting origin. In Grose’s time the term was humorously varied by Blowsabella, in reference to the country girl in Gay’s pastoral poem, ‘The Shepherd’s Week,’ which depicts rural life in its character of poverty and rudeness, rather than as clothed in the colours of romance.

We, fair, fine ladies, who park out our lives
From common sheep-paths, cannot help the crows,
From flying over; we’re as natural still
As Blousalinda.

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. xvi., st. 37, p. 43 (E.D.S.). Whiles
Gillet, his blouse, is a milking thy cow.

1605. Chapman, All Fooles, Act iv., p. 68 (Plays, 1874).

Wed without my advice, my love, my knowledge,
Ay, and a beggar, too, a trull, a blowse!

1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, III., i. Wench is your trull, your
blouze, your dowdie.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. VII., p. 20.

So the old Babylonian Blouze,
And her demure fanatick Spouse.

1851. Thackeray, English Humorists, p. 167. Are not the Rosalindas
of Britain as charming as the Blousalindas of the Hague?

Blow the Gab or Gaff, verbal phr. (common).—To reveal, or ‘let out’ a secret; to peach. Cf., Gaff, Gag and Gab. For synonyms, see Peach.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To blow the gab
(cant), to confess, or impeach a confederate.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xliii. ‘One of the French
officers, after he was taken prisoner, axed me how we had managed
to get the gun up there; but I wasn’t going to blow the gaff.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 122. The prisoner,
burning for revenge, quietly bides his time till the chief warder
comes round, then asks to speak to him, and ‘blows the gaff.’

Blow the Grampuse, verbal phr. (nautical).—To throw cold water on a man who has fallen asleep when on duty.

Blow the Groundsels, verbal phr. (old).—To have sexual commerce on the ground.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. To blow the
groundsils (cant), to lie with a woman on the floor.

Blow Together, verbal phr. (tailors’).—To make garments in a slovenly manner.

Blow Up, subs. (colloquial).—A scolding; a ‘wigging’; a railing.

1809. Sir W Gell, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1883), I., 355.
There won’t be any quarrel, so you need not fear. The only chance
is Keppel making a blow up when she abuses me.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxviii. Morgan had had ‘a devil of
a blow hup with his own guv’nor, and was going to retire from the
business haltogether.’

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. vii. ‘Mind the hice is here in time;
or they’ll be a blow up with your governor.’

Verb (colloquial).—To scold.

1809. Sir W. Gell, in C. K. Sharpe’s Correspondence (1888), I.,
355. I have heard her daughter blow up Lady Salisbury when she had
quarrelled with Lady Sefton.

1883. G. A. S[ala], in Illust. L. News, June 16, p. 599, col. 1.
That the ’aughty nobleman should blow up the clerk for presuming to
take a seat in his presence.

To blow up sky-high, phr. (American).—The American, fond of doing everything with unusual energy, likes to blow up sky-high, an addition which lends colour to the supposition that probably the phrase is originally a nautical one, and really borrowed from the blowing up of a vessel, much as the meaning of the words must have evaporated before it reached the present stage.

Blow upon (old).—To betray; to tell tales of; to discredit; to defame.—See Blow, verb, sense 2. Used also with indirect passive.

1402. [? T. Occleve], Letter of Cupid, in Arber’s Garner, vol. IV.,
p. 61.

Thus they despisèd be, on every side,
Dislanderèd and blown upon full wide.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. X., ch. ii. ‘That the reputation of
her house, which was never blown upon before, was utterly
destroyed.’

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, II., p. 239. It fortunately
occurred to me, that if I gave it him myself, I could be of no
farther use. I should have been blown upon immediately.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. xii. ‘The condition
of our affairs is desperate, and may be blown upon at any moment.’

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. i., p. 4. Both desisted from
their own recriminations as to ‘rounding’ and ‘blowing’ on each
other.

1882. Jas. Payn, in Glow Worm Tales, p. 301. ‘An Improvement on a
System.’ If Mr. Prince had caught me before his establishment had
got ‘blown upon’ in the public prints, he might have persuaded me
to become an inmate of the Agapemone. I hope I should not have
approved of the manner of life in vogue at that institution, but I
make no doubt that I should have fallen in with it without much
resistance.

Blub.—See Blubber, verb.

Blubber, subs. (common).—1. The mouth. From the figurative use of the word, especially of anything swollen or protruding, as of the lips. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. I have stopped the
cull’s blubber, I have stopped the fellow’s mouth.

2. A woman’s breasts.—See Sport blubber, and for synonyms, Dairies.

Verb (familiar).—To cry; to weep—used contemptuously. Also shortened into blub.

1400. Test. Love, II. (1560), 283, 1. Han women none other wrech
... but blober and wepe till hem list stint. [M.]

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, xliv. (1804), 202. He blubbered
like a great school-boy who had been whipped.

1826. Scott, Woodstock, IV. Phœbe Mayflower blubbered heartily for
company. [M.]

To sport blubber, phr. (common).—To show one’s breasts, said of women, especially those with large and prominent bosoms.

Blubber and Guts, subs. (common).—Obesity; a low term.

Blubber-Belly, subs. (common).—A fat person.

Blubber Head, subs. (common).—A foolish, empty-headed individual.—See Apartments to let.

Blucher (ch. hard), subs. (Winchester College).—1. A College præfect in half power. Their jurisdiction does not extend beyond ‘Seventh Chamber passage,’ though their privileges are the same as those of other præfects. They are eight in number.

1864. Blackwood, p. 86. The remaining eight college præfects
(called in Winchester tongue, bluchers) have a more limited
authority, confined to Chambers and the Quadrangle.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 30. The
eight senior præfects were said to have ‘full power,’ and had some
slight privileges not enjoyed by the remaining ten, who were
generally called bluchers.

2. A non-privileged cab plying at railway stations. The origin of the name and its application, as far as known, is given in the two following quotations.

1864. Soc. Sc. Review, I., p. 406. The railway companies recognise
two other classes of cabs, called the ‘privileged’ ... and the
‘Bluchers,’ named after the Prussian Field-Marshal who arrived on
the field of Waterloo only to do the work that chanced to be
undone.

1870. Athenæum, 5 March, p. 328. Non-privileged cabs, which are
admitted to stations after all the privileged have been hired, are
known as Bluchers.

Bludgeoner, subs. (harlotry).—A bully; pimp; ponce; a man attached to a house of ill-fame for the purpose of terrorising victims, and rendering easier the task of plunder. [From bludgeon, a stout stick or club, + er or eer; i.e., one armed with the weapon in question.]

1852. Blackwood’s Magazine, p. 224. Those brutal bludgeoneers ...
go out ... in gangs to poach. [M.]

1855. Trollope, Warden, xiv., p. 144. Old St. Dunstan with its
smiting bludgeoneer has been removed.

Bludger, subs. (thieves’).—A low thief, who does not hesitate to use violence; literally one who will use a bludgeon. Cf., Bludget.

1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 46. Those who plunder with
violence; as ... bludgers or ‘stick slingers,’ who rob in company
with low women.

Bludget, subs. (American).—This is given in the New York Slang Dictionary [1881] as ‘a low female thief, who decoys her victims into alley-ways, etc., to rob them.’ Cf., Bludger.

Blue.—Few words enter more largely into the composition of slang, and colloquialisms bordering on slang, than does the word blue. Expressive alike of the utmost contempt, as of all that men hold dearest and love best, its manifold combinations, in ever varying shades of meaning, greet the philologist at every turn. A very Proteus, it defies all attempts to trace the why and wherefore of many of the turns of expression of which it forms a part—why true blue should be synonymous with faithful, staunch adherence to one’s faith and principles; or why, on the other hand, to look blue should signify affected with fear, dismayed, and low-spirited. Curiously enough, the historical method helps but little to decide why in one case an exact reversal of meaning should have taken place in the application of the word; for, as far as the evidence is concerned, both the good and bad shades of meaning appear to run contemporaneously. It is also noteworthy that the word enters largely into the slang of nationalities other than our own; indeed, one of the most curious, as well as one of the most interesting facts connected with the comparative study of slang, is that which reveals the oneness of the human race in its modes of thought and speech, the Tower of Babel notwithstanding. This special feature of slang will, to some extent, be found dealt with at the end of this work; but the subject is too wide, and the field too vast, for one student to have accomplished much single-handed. This, however, may be said; that, comparing the slang of one nation with that of another, one finds the same ideas cropping up, revealing, alas! the same follies and foibles, but also showing, let it be said, in the few cases where slang travels beyond the earthy and the sensual, the same aspirations, the same endeavour, and the same hope.

Subs.—1. A policeman. [From the colour of the uniform.] This epithet can be traced back to Elizabethan days [see Blue-bottle], and the uniform seems to have been blue from time immemorial; indeed, this colour appears from the earliest times to have 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-coat boys, and even harlots in a house of correction, who 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. The police more recently have been known collectively as blues, the men in blue, blue-boys, blue bottles, blue-devils, royal regiment of foot-guards blue, all nicknames referring to the colour of the uniform. For general synonyms, see Beak.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 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.

18(?). Hood, Row at the ‘Oxford Arms.’

Well, that’s the row, and who can guess the upshot after all?
Whether Harmony will ever make the ‘Arms’ her house of call;
Or whether this here mobbing, as some longish heads fortell it,
Will grow to such a riot that the Oxford blues must quell it.

2. A blue is known to licensed victuallers and their customers in certain districts of Wales as a compromise between the half-pint and the pint pot. It is not recognised as a legal measure by the authorities on weights and measures, but it is approaching to something like a status, as it deserves to do in the interests of temperance. Although 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, 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. A scholar of Christ’s Hospital; a blue-coat boy. [This nickname is also derived from the colour of the clothes—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, being the complete costume. This was the ordinary dress of children in humble life during the reigns of the Tudors.]

1834. W. Trollope (Title), Christ’s Hospital ... with memoirs of
Eminent Blues.

1877. W. H. Blanch, Blue-Coat Boys, p. 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. Short for blue-stocking (q.v.); formerly a contemptuous term for a woman having or affecting literary tastes.

1788. Madame D’Arblay, 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, ch. xi., st. 50. The Blues, that tender
tribe, who sigh o’er sonnets.

1845. Disraeli, Sybil, p. 76. ‘But she was very clever....’
‘Accomplished?’ ‘Oh, far beyond that....’ ‘A regular blue.’

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Adventures of Verdant
Green, I., p. 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. Female learning or pedantry.

1824. Byron, Don Juan, xvi., 47. She also had a twilight tinge of
blue. [M.]

6. (University.)—At Oxford and Cambridge a man is said to get his blue when selected as a competitor in inter-university sports. The University colours are, for Oxford, dark blue; and for Cambridge, light blue. Cf., To get one’s silk, said of a barrister when made Queen’s Counsel.

Adj.—1. A contemptuous epithet applied usually to women of literary tastes.—See Blue-stocking. The French have elle est bleue celle-là; en voilà une de bleue; je la trouve bleue.

1788. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary (1842), iv., p. 219. Nobody would have
thought it more odd or more blue.

1834. Southey, The Doctor, ch. 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, ch. xi. She was a little, a very
little blue—rather a babbler in the ‘ologies’ than a real disciple.

1842. Dickens, American Notes, ch. iii., p. 33. 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, ch. 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, p. 660. A clever, sensible woman, rather
blue.

2. Indecent; ‘smutty’; obscene. This may be derived from the blue dress of harlots—see preceding, subs., 1.—although Hotten suggests it as coming from the French Bibliothèque Bleu, a series of books of very questionable character. Books or conversation of an entirely opposite nature are said to be brown or Quakerish, i.e., serious, grave, decent.

3. Gloomy; fearful; depressed; low-spirited. Cf., To look blue, Blue funk, and In the blues. Possibly an allusion to the blueness of cold.

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

1862. Trollope, Orley Farm, I., p. 93. It’s blue; uncommon blue.

1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, I., p. 60. ‘My dear Charlie,’ 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, ch. xl. I kept up
my blue meditations.

1874. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Gilded Age, ch. 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.

Verb.—1. To blush. Cf., subs., sense 3.

1709. Steele and Swift, Tatler, No. 71, p. 8. If a Virgin blushes,
we no longer cry she blues. [M.]

2. To pawn; pledge; spend; actually to get rid of money quickly. Cf., Blew. There are two suggested derivations of the word when used in this sense; (1) that it is connected with ‘blown,’ i.e., dissipated or scattered; and (2) that money so squandered has disappeared as effectually as if it had passed into the blue, i.e., the sky or the deep sea. The German has ins blaue hinein, ‘away into the blue,’ equivalent to the French passer au bleu. Faire passer au bleu is to dissipate, spend, or squander. For synonyms, in the sense of to pawn, see Pop.

1880. Punch’s Almanac, p. 2. This top coat?—would blue it.

1887. Punch, 10 Sept., p. 111. I never minds blueing the pieces
purvided I gets a good spree.

3. To miscalculate; ‘to make a “mess” of anything’; to mull.

4. (thieves’.)—To steal; to plunder. To be blued, to be robbed. For synonyms, see Prig.

By all that’s blue, phr. (popular).—A euphemistic oath; probably meaning ‘by Heaven.’ It may be compared with the French parbleu, synonymous with par Dieu.

1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxiii. ‘The black cat, by all that’s
blue!’ cried the Captain.

Men in blue, phr. (popular).—The police.—See Blue, subs., sense 1.

1882. Besant, All Sorts and Cond. of Men, ch. xliii. ‘You must now
begin to think seriously about handcuffs and prison, and men in
blue.’

1886. G. A. Apperson, Graphic, 30 Jan., p. 137. The police in
recent times have been known as the blues and the men in blue.

Till all is blue, phr. (popular).—1. To the utmost; to the end; for an indefinite period. Smyth, in his Sailors’ Word Book, says this phrase is borrowed from the idea of a vessel making out of port and getting into deep water.

1835. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. xix. [The land] could
be made to carry wheat till all’s blue again. Ibid., 3 S., ch. xx.
Your mother kickin’ and screamin’ till all was blue again.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, I., p. 184. I’ll have at her again,
and dance till all’s blue before I give in.

2. When applied to drinking, till all is blue signifies exceeding tipsy. As will be seen, this usage is somewhat ancient. It is an allusion to the supposed effect of drinking on the eyesight. An analogous French expression is avoir un coup d’bleu (to be slightly tipsy).

1616. R. C., Times’ Whis., v., 1835. They drink ... Vntil their
adle heads doe make the ground Seeme blew vnto them.

1638. Ford, Lady’s Trial, iv., 2. We can drink till all look blue.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Lay of St. Dunstan).

‘I have nothing to do:
And ’fore George, I’ll sit here and I’ll drink till all’s
blue!’

To look blue, phr. (popular).—To be confounded; surprised; astonished; annoyed or disappointed. French equivalents are en rester tout bleu; en être bleu; en bailler tout bleu; and baba from ébahi, astounded.

c. 1600. Rob. Hood (‘Ritson’), II., xxxvi., 84. It made the sunne
looke blue. [M.]

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. Blue, adj. ... 2, blank, or cast down;
as, he looked blue upon it.

1884. Cornhill Mag., Jan., p. 111. The prudent (and sagacious)
officer looked blue. But he speedily recovered himself.

To make the air blue, phr. (popular).—To curse; to swear; to use profane language. Cf., Blue, adj., sense 2.

True blue, phr. (colloquial).—Faithful; genuine; real; an allusion to blue as the colour of constancy. A reference either to the deep blue of the sky or sea suggestive of interminableness; or, it may be derived as was ‘Coventry blue,’ from a dye that would neither change its colour nor be discharged by washing; hence figuratively, to signify persons or things of sterling character or quality. In neither case is the argument clear or decisive; there is certainly no reason in nature why the colour and cardinal virtue should be thus associated. Blue skies and blue seas are proverbially deceitful, and on the other hand, the expression seems too old a one to owe its origin to the dyer’s skill.

1383. Chaucer, Squiere’s Tale.

And by hire bedde’s hed she made a mew,
And covered it with velouettes blew,
In signe of trouthe that is in woman sene.

Ibid, Court of Love, line 246.

So you dir folke (quod she) that knele in blew,
They were the colour ay and ever shal,
In signe they were, and ever wil be true,
Withoutin change.

Blue Apron, subs. (common).—A tradesman.

1721. Amherst, Terræ Fil., xliii., 230. For if any saucy blue-apron
dares to affront any venerable person ... all scholars are
immediately forbid to have any dealing or commerce with him.

1868. Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, p. 98. A blue-apron
statesman, a lay politician, a tradesman who interferes with the
affairs of the nation. The reference is to the blue apron once worn
by nearly all tradesmen, but now restricted to butchers,
poulterers, fishmongers, and so on.

Bluebacks, subs.—1. The paper money of the Confederates. A cant name, originating, as in the case of United States paper currency greenbacks, in the colour of the printing on the reverse. A more pronounced slang name, subsequently applied to bluebacks, was ‘shucks,’ from their worthlessness after the war. ‘Shucks’ is an old English term for the refuse of peas and similar products when shelled.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 291. The confederate notes bore,
for the same reason, the name of bluebacks, which was, however,
soon exchanged for the slang term of shucks.

2. The Orange Free State paper money.

1878. Trollope, South Africa, II., p. 206. Bluebacks, as they were
called, were printed. Ibid, p. 222. The bluebacks as the Orange
Free State banknotes were called.

Blue Bellies.—A nickname bestowed by Southerners, during the Civil War, upon their opponents of the North, whose uniform was blue. They were also called boys in blue, yanks, etc. The Southerners, on the other hand, received such names as the secesh, rebs, and johnny rebs, the latter being sometimes shortened to johnnies. The grey uniform of the Confederates likewise caused them to be styled boys in grey and greybacks, the latter epithet cutting two ways, as the Southern soldiers not only wore grey uniforms, but ‘greyback’ in America as well as England signifies a louse.

1883. Daily Telegraph, Feb. 9, p. 5, col. 4. The Confederate armies
during the great Civil War in America ... were known ... as
‘Greybacks,’ whereas their Federal opponents, from the light-azure
gaberdines which they wore, were dubbed ‘blue-bellies.’

Blue Bills, subs. (Winchester College).—The tradesmen’s bills sent home to the parents and guardians of students. [So called from the colour of the envelopes generally used.]

Blue Billy, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A handkerchief (blue ground with white spots) sometimes worn and used as a colour at prize-fights.—See Billy, sense 1.

2. (mining.)—See quotation.

1887. ‘Death of Blue Billy,’ in Chamb. Jour., Dec. 17, p. 812. Blue
Billy is the technical name given to the lime rendered foul in the
purification of the gas.

Blue Blanket, subs. (common).—1. The sky. This simile is an old one; Defoe’s use of it may probably have been suggested by Shakspeare’s ‘blanket of the dark’ (Macbeth, I., v.).

c. 1720. Defoe, Hist. of Devil, quoted in N. and Q., 7 S., ii.,
289; see also 7 S., ii., 492. We must be content till we come on
the other side the blue blanket, and then we shall know the whole
story.

1877. Greenwood, Under the Blue Blanket. The vagrant brotherhood
have several slang terms for sleeping out in a field or meadow. It
is called ‘snoozing in Hedge Square’; ‘dossing with the daisies’;
and ‘lying under the blue blanket.’

The French say, ‘coucher à l’hotel de l’Etoile,’ i.e., ‘to sleep at the Star Hotel’; while in the Fourbesque, or Italian cant, heaven or the sky is termed copertore, a covering or blanket.

2. (common.)—A rough overcoat made of coarse pilot cloth.

Blue Blazes.—See Blazes.

Blue Boar, subs. (old).—A certain venereal disease.

Blue-Bottle, subs. (popular).—1. A policeman. This epithet, at one time applied generally to all wearers of a dark blue uniform, is now invariably understood to mean a guardian of the peace. It is one of the oldest of the nicknames given to members of the force, and occurs as far back as 1598.

Cf., Blue, sense 1, and see Beak for synonyms.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., v., 4. Dall [addressing beadle] ...
you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. lxiv. ‘Police, indeed!’
muttered Charley, ‘the General can’t remember that he is out of
London.... These confounded sulky Austrian officials are rather
different customers to deal with from our blue-bottles.—Messrs. Al
and Co.’

1864. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, Sept. 13. Caught in his own toils
by the blue-bottles of Scotland Yard, [M.]

1864. Blackwood’s Mag., p. 15. He who could summon to his aid every
alphabetical blue-bottle that ever handled a truncheon.

1888. Middleton, Michaelmas Term. And to be free from the
interruption of blue beadles, and other bawdy officers.

2. A serving-man, blue having been the usual habit of servants. Cf., Blue-coat.

1602. Honest Whore, O. Pl., iii., 389. You proud varlets, you need
not be ashamed to wear blue, when your master is one of your
fellows.

1608. Dekker, Belman, sign E., 3. The others act their parts in
blew coates, as (if) they were their serving-men.

Hence blue-bottle is sometimes a term of reproach for a servant. [Case Altered, i., 2. O. Pl., v., 6.] And a serving-man, in B. Jonson, says, ‘Ever since I was of the blue order.’

About 1608, when Middleton’s Comedy of A Trick to catch the Old One was produced, the blue-coats of servants appear to have been changed for cloaks, such as were worn by the upper classes also at that time. Thus, in that comedy [Act ii., Anc. Drama, v., p. 151]:—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. B. Jonson [Mask of Christmas] introduces New Yeares Gift, In a blew coat, serving-man like, with an orange, etc.

1845. G. P. R. James, Arrah Neil, p. 325. The personage to whom he
addressed himself, was one of the serving-men of that day, known by
the general term of blue-bottles.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. x. (I., p. 173). I fancy you
would love to move to court like him, followed by a round score of
old blue-bottles. Ibid, ch. xi. My lord, my father ... has
blue-bottles enough to wait on him.

Blue Boy, subs. (common).—A bubo; a tumour or abscess with inflammation. Specially applied to that kind which is a result of venereal disease.

Blue-Boys, subs. (popular).—The police. The expression is generally used in the plural. Cf., Blue, sense 1, and Beak, sense 1.

1880. Jas. Greenwood, Help Myself Society, in Odd People in Odd
Places, p. 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.

Blue Butter, subs. (common).—Mercurial ointment, used for the destruction of parasites.

Blue-Coat, subs.—A constable; a guardian of public order. This, like many of its congeners, has been applied to serving-men, beadles, tailors, and others wearing a uniform of a dark blue colour. Like blue, blue-bottle, etc., its application to a policeman is of some antiquity. Cf., Blue, sense 1, and Beak, sense 1.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 19 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). And
being so taken, haue beene carried to places of correction, there
wofully tormented by blew-coates, cowardly fellowes, that ... haue
so scourged vs, that flesh and blood could hardly endure it.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 417. ‘I
thinks them Chartists are a weak-minded set ... a hundred o’ them
would run away from one blue-coat.’

Blued or Blewed, ppl. adj. (common).—Tipsy; drunk. For synonyms, see Screwed.

Blue Dahlia, subs. (common).—A colloquialism for something rare or seldom seen; a rara avis.

Blue Devils, subs. (popular).—1. Dejection; lowness of spirits; hypochondria.

1786. Cowper, Letters, No. 219, vol. II., p. 143 (ed. 1834). I have
not that which commonly is a symptom of such a case belonging to
me,—I mean extraordinary elevation in the absence of Mr. Blue
devil. When I am in the best health, my tide of animal
sprightliness flows with great equality.

1790. W. B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 1.

Or, dropping poisons in the cup of joy,
Do the blue devils your repose annoy?

1871. Planché, King Christmas. There are blue devils which defy
blue pills.

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge iii. He got
discontented and had fits of blue devils.

Two French equivalents for feeling out of sorts are s’emboucaner, and s’éncoliflucheter.

2. (popular.)—Delirium tremens. From the apparitions drunkards often suppose they see. In both this and the foregoing sense blue devils is contracted into blues.

1818–9. Cobbett, Resid. U.S., 42. It was just the weather to give
drunkards the blue devils.

1831. Scott, Demonology, i., 18. They, by a continued series of
intoxication, became subject to what is popularly called the blue
devils.

Hence such derivatives as blue devilage; blue devilry; blue devilism; and an adjectival form blue devilly.

1871. Lockhart, Fair to See, I., p. 208. On the lower hills the
pine-trees loomed through stagnant mists with a dejected and
blue-devilly aspect.

Blue Fear, subs. (popular).—Extreme fright. [From the ‘blue’ or pallid cast of countenance which fear is supposed to induce. The same as blue funk (q.v.), which is more general.]

1883. R. L. Stevenson, The Treasure of Franchard, in Longman’s
Mag., April, p. 683. Anastasie had saved the remainder of his
fortune by keeping him strictly in the country. The very name of
Paris put her in a blue fear.

Blue Flag, subs. (common).—A blue apron (q.v.). Worn by butchers, publicans, and other tradesmen.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. He has hoisted the
blue flag, he has commenced publican, or taken a public house,
alluding to the blue aprons worn by publicans.

Blue Funk, subs. (popular).—Extreme fright, nervousness, or dread. [Funk is ‘to stink through fear’; Wedgwood connects it with the Walloon funker, ‘to smoke.’]

1856. Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 196. If I was
going to be flogged next minute, I should be in a blue funk.

1861. Macmillan’s Magazine, p. 211. I was in a real blue funk.

1861. Saturday Review, Nov. 23, 534. We encounter ... the miserable
Dr. Blandling in what is called a blue funk. [M.]

1871. Maxwell, in Life (1882), xvi., 382. Certainly χλωρὸν θέος is
the Homeric for a blue funk.

Blue Hen’s Chickens, subs. (American).—A slang name for the inhabitants of Delaware. The nickname arose thus: Captain Caldwell, an officer of the first Delaware regiment in the American War of Independence, was noted for his love of cock-fighting. Being personally popular, and his regiment becoming famous for their valour, they were soon known as ‘game-cocks’; and as Caldwell maintained that no cock was truly game unless its mother was a blue hen, his regiment, and subsequently Delawareans generally, became known as blue hen’s chickens, and Delaware as the Blue Hen State for the same reason. A boaster is also often brought to book by the sarcasm, ‘Your mother was a blue hen no doubt.’

Blue Horse, subs. (military).—The Fourth Dragoon Horse, from its facings.

Blue Lightning, subs. (American).—One of the grimly facetious names with which Texans have christened revolvers. At times a dispute has literally been a word, a flash of blue lightning and—certain death. For synonyms, see Barker.

Blue Monday, subs. (workmen’s).—A Monday spent in dissipation and absence from work. One often hears the phrase ‘to feel Mondayish.’ The German has der blaue Montag. Cf., Black Saturday.

1885. Harper’s Magazine, p. 873, col. 1. The workman getting sober
after his usual blue Monday. [M.]

Blue Moon. Once in a blue moon, phr. (popular).—Extremely seldom; an unlimited time; a rarely recurring period. An old phrase, first used in the sense of something absurd. A blue moon, like the Greek Kalends, is something which does not exist. A variant is ‘when two Sundays come in a week.’ As regards origin nothing is known; barring the extract from Roy and Barlow, authorities give no examples earlier than 1876—a curious fact.

1526. Roy and Barlowe, Rede me and be not wroth, p. 114 [ed. Arber,
1871].

Yf they saye the mone is belewe,
We must beleve that it is true,
Admittynge their interpretacion.

1860. F. W. Robinson, Grandmother’s Money, I., p. 144. If he talked
till a blue moon, etc.

1876. Miss Braddon, Joshua Haggard’s Daughter, ch. xxiv. Why should
she stint as to one or two puddings a week ... and a fruit pasty
once in a blue moon.

1884. R. E. Francillon, Ropes of Sand, ch. xxi. ‘I’ve made bold to
take the chance of your being at home for once in a blue moon, Mr.
Carew,’ said she.

Blue Murder or Blue Murders, subs. (common).—A term used to describe cries of terror or alarm; a great noise; an unusual racket. Cf., French morbleu.

1887. J. S. Winter, Eng. Ill. Mag., Dec., p. 179. The dingy person
dropped his victim and howled what the half-dozen officers ...
graphically described as blue murder.

Blueness, subs. (common).—Indecency. Smutty talk is described as blue, sense 2 (q.v.).

1840. Carlyle, Diderot, Ess., 240. The occasional blueness of both
[writings] shall not altogether affright us.

French Synonyms. Les horreurs; les bêtises; les gueulées. To talk blue is rendered by décravater ses propos.