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Related information about Blue

In the UK, a sporting honour awarded at Oxford and Cambridge universities to students who represent their university against the other in the annual matches of certain sports. Ribbons of dark blue (Oxford) or light blue (Cambridge) were first awarded to competitors after the second Boat Race in 1836, but now holders may wear ties, blazers, and sweaters in the appropriate colour.

otheruses
Blue is any of a number of similar colors. blue light has the shortest wavelength range of the three additive primary colors. The English language commonly uses "blue" to refer to any color from navy blue to cyan.

The complementary (opposite) color of blue is yellow.

Blue in RGB system

In the RGB color system, colors are formed by mixing a red, a green and a blue color.

Naming and etymology

Blue in English

The modern English word blue(german:blau) comes from the Middle English, bleu or blwe, which came from an Old French word bleu of Germanic origin (Frankish or possibly Old High German blao, "shining"). A Scots and Scottish English word for "blue-grey" is blae, from the Middle English bla ("dark blue," from the Old English bl脱d). see flavescent and flavine), with Greek phalos (white), French blanche (white) (loaned from Old Frankish), and with Russian ?????, belyi ("white," see beluga), and Welsch blawr (grey) all of which derive (according to the American Heritage Dictionary) from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel- meaning "to shine, flash or burn", (more specifically the word bhle-was, which meant light coloured, blue, blond, or yellow), from whence came the names of various bright colors, and that of color black from a derivation meaning "burnt" (other words derived from the root bhel- include bleach, bleak, blind, blink, blank, blush, blaze, flame, fulminate, flagrant and phlegm). Some Nguni languages of southern Africa, including Tswana languageure momaa na utilize the same word for blue and green. In traditional Welsh (and related Celtic languages), glas could refer to blue but also to certain shades of green and grey; Instead, it traditionally treats light blue (???????, goluboy) as a separate color independent from plain or dark blue (?????, siniy), with all 7 "basic" colors of spectrum (red - orange - yellow - green - (:ru:??????? / goluboy / light blue, not equal cyan) - (:ru:????? / siniy / dark blue) - violet);

Blue in the environment

A clear sky on a sunny day appears blue because of Rayleigh scattering of the light from the Sun.

Large quantities of water appear blue because red light around 750 nm is absorbed as an overtone of the O-H stretching vibration. weber) is a blue-leafed variety of the Mexican agave, used for making tequila.

• Bluebonnets are two lupine annual flowers in the Lupinus genus that are native to Texas: Lupinus subcarnosus and Lupinus texensis. In Scots it refers to the bird Parus c?ruleus.
  
• Bluebell may refer to both the bulbous plants in the Hyacinthoides genus of lilies, or the plants in the genus Mertensia.
  
• Blueberry refers to any of the plants in the genus Vaccinium, all of which have flowers with edible berries colored blue to blue-black, which are also called "blueberries".
  
• Blue Flag Iris, Iris versicolor, also commonly known as the Harlequin Blueflag.
  
• Blue Jacaranda, an ornamental tree with blue flowers.
  

Animals

• The Blue Jay is a bird within the family corvidae.
  
• Cobalt blue tarantulas are large, brightly colored spiders.
  
• Hyacinth Macaw, as well as many other species of parrot.
  
• Bluebill is a synonym for scaup, the name for two diving ducks in the Aythya genus: Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) and Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis).
  
• Bluebirds are any of the North American songbirds in the genus Sialia: Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana), or Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides). They are medium-sized thrushes that usually have blue plumage and, in males, a rust-color breast.
  
• Blueback salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) is a synonym for sockeye salmon.
  
• Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus)are the largest animals in the world.
  
• Bluebottles or blow-flies are any of the flies in the genus Calliphiora that have a brightly-colored metallic body and breed in decaying organic material. Bluebottle is also another name of the Portuguese man-of-war, Physalia.
  
• Blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) is a long bluish North American catfish species, often weighing more than 45 kg (100 pounds).
  
• Blue poison dart frogs (Dendrobates azureus) are poisonous South American frogs that bioaccumulate neurotoxins in their blue skin.
  

When a dog or cat is described as having a "blue" coat, it refers to a shade of grey which takes on a bluish tint, and diluted variant of a pure black coat. Breeds such as the Kerry Blue Terrier dog and Russian Blue cat have solid "blue" coats, as does the "British Blue" variety of the British Shorthair cat. Others, such as the Australian Shepherd and Border Collie, may have blue merle coats, which is "blue" mixed in with a solid, usually brown or black, base color. (See also Blue Dog Democrats, below).

The western skink has a brilliant cobalt blue tail.

Geography

Mountains and ranges

• Blテ・ Jungfrun (the Blue Virgin), a small island hill off the coast of southeast Sweden, near the larger island of テ僕and, traditionally thought to be a meeting place of witches (according to tradition such a mountain is called Blテ・kulla, but only exists in legend)
  
• Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland. Other ranges termed the "Blue Mountains" are found in northeastern Oregon (North America) and elsewhere.
  
• Blue Ridge Mountains, eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains.
  
• Sinite Kam?ni (Bulgarian: ?????? The Blue Stones) is a rocky massive in Eastern Stara Planina Mountain immediately North of the town of Sliven in Bulgaria.
  

Rivers

• Blue Nile, a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
  
• Blue Earth River, a tributary of the Minnesota River in Minnesota, United States. The Blue Earth River is named from the bluish green earth that was used by the Sisseton Dakota as a pigment, found in a shaley layer of the rock bluff of this stream about three miles from the river mouth.
  

Symbolism and expressions

Blue often denotes injury, such as in the phrase "black and blue," since it is the color of a bruise. This shift occurred in the 2000 Presidential election in which states which leaned toward Al Gore were colored blue by the major news networks and those that leaned towards George W. The phrase "true blue" also means "genuine" (example : "He's a true blue Aussie").

• Blue comedy is comedy that uses references to socially taboo subjects such as sexual or lavatorial double entendre. This term is most common in Britain but also used in the United States and Israel.
  

• Blue law is the term for laws regulating issues of morality, such as alcohol, gambling, or pornography.
  

• Although blue is traditionally associated with boys as pink is associated with girls, there have also been periods in which pink was considered proper for boys and blue for girls, and times when no set color convention appears to have been in place.
  

• Blue is the color of the snooker ball which has a 5-point value.
  

• Blue is a variety of credit card issued by American Express.
  
• The German word for blue is used for "drunk". "blau machen" (make blue) means to skip work.
  
• In Russian, the word for light blue is slang for "gay".
  
• In auto racing, a blue flag advises a car to yield to faster traffic behind.
  
• Blue balls is a slang term for a temporary fluid congestion in the scrotum and prostate region.
  
• Royalty are sometimes described as having blue blood.
  
• A "blue chip" is the nickname for a stock that is thought to be safe and in excellent financial shape.
  
• In the United States, $1 bills are delivered by the Federal Reserve Bank in blue straps.
  
• Blue is the color claimed by the Crips street gang.
  
• Blueprint is a term for a design of something, usually important items.
  

Books and written works

In the United Kingdom the traditional covering for Parliamentary and official publications and reports in the nineteenth century was a deep blue, and the reports came to be known as "blue books". The Blue Book is a term for a policy document issued by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States in 1946, urging television networks to uphold their commitment to public service. Compare with the yellow pages or white pages.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy there are many references to the Hooloovoo, "a super-intelligent shade of the color blue."

In House of Leaves every instance of the word House is in blue.

On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry is a book-length essay by William H.

• IBM's chess computer (which defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov) was called Deep Blue.
  

• Users of Microsoft Windows often use the term "blue" to describe a computer that has encountered a "blue screen of death."
  

• A blue box is an electronic device with a tone pulsator that simulates a telephone operator's dialing console by replicating the tones used to switch long-distance calls and using them to route the user's own call, bypassing the normal switching mechanism.
  

• In medical diagrams, blue is used to represent veins carrying deoxygenated blood back to the heart. The blue color of veins is associated with deoxygenated myoglobin, a compound similar to hemoglobin and found in tissues.
  

• In astronomy, a blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month, the third full moon in a season that has four, or a moon that appears blue because of particles in the atmosphere. www.dow.com/styrofoam/what.htm
  

• In the CIE 1931 color space, the complement of blue is yellow.
  

• Blue 80A filters are used to correct the excessive redness of tungsten lighting in color photography.
  

• The Blu-ray and HD DVD formats utilize a blue-violet laser operating at a wavelength of 405 nm. Conventional DVDs and CDs use red and infrared lasers at 650 nm and 780 nm respectively.
  

National, athletic, and university associations

Azzurro, a light blue, is the national color of Italy (from the livery color of the former reigning family, the House of Savoy).

Blue (along with white) is the national color of Greece and Israel and the color is seen on the Israeli and Greek flags.

Dark blue is associated with the University of Oxford and Florida International University Light blue is associated with the University of Cambridge. Other universities with the mascot include Central Connecticut State University, Dillard University, Lawrence Technological University, State University of New York at Fredonia, and the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are a National Hockey League team based in Columbus, Ohio. The Blue Jays are the mascots of the Toronto Blue Jays, a Major League Baseball team, and its two minor league affiliates: the Dunedin Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida, and the Pulaski Blue Jays in Pulaski, Virginia. Law enforcement, and uniformed police, often wear blue uniforms and have become associated with the color, as seen in phrases such as "boys in blue," "blue line," and "blue wall." Most police cars have blue colors, and United Nations peacekeepers are uniformed in blue and white. Since laws prohibit police from declaring a strike, the "blue flu" is a "sickout": a type of strike action in which police call in sick.

Blue is associated with many air forces and navies because of the color of their dress uniforms, while green is associated with armies.

• Navy blue is a particular shade of blue worn by sailors in the Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. The Blue Angels are an acrobatic flight squadron of the United States Navy.
  
• In the United States Army, "Old Glory Blue" (Navy blue) is the color of infantry, "Cobalt Blue" is the color of the Chemical Corps, "Oriental Blue" is the color of Military Intelligence, and Ultramarine Blue is the color of the Army Aviation.
  
• When the United States Air Force became independent from the Army in 1947, it inherited ultramarine blue as its distinctive color.
  
• The Royal Air Force and many other air forces use "Air Force Blue" (Sky blue) as their distinctive colour; however their uniforms are often in blue-gray or dark blue.
  

Blue has historically been used for many uniforms of the French military.

Political associations

Main article: Political colour

Blue, like white, may represent authority, as opposed to revolutionary red or anarchist black.

Internationally, blue is the symbol for conservatism and conservative political parties. There are several notable exceptions and different meanings other than the conservatism:

Nation	Political party	Ideology	Color(s)
Australia	Liberal Party	Liberal conservatism	Blue
Bulgaria	Union of Democratic Forces(SDS)	Liberal conservatism	Blue
Canada	Bloc Quテゥbテゥcois	Quebec sovereignty/Social democracy	Light blue
Canada	Conservative Party	Conservatism/right-wing	Blue
Republic of China	Kuomintang(Chinese Nationalist Party,KMT)	Three Principles of the People/Chinese reunification/Conservatism/Anti-communism/Chinese nationalism	Blue
Finland	National Coalition Party	Liberal conservatism	Blue
Germany	Free Democratic Party	Liberalism	Blue and yellow
Malta	Nationalist Party	Christian democracy/Conservatism	Blue
Paraguay	Authentic Radical Liberal Party	Liberalism	Blue
Portugal	Democratic and Social Center / People's Party	Christian democracy/Conservatism/right-wing	Blue
Puerto Rico	New Progressive Party	Puerto Rican statehood	Blue
Sweden	Moderate Party	Liberal conservatism	Blue
United Kingdom	Conservative Party	Conservatism	Blue
United States	Democratic Party	Liberalism	Blue*

*In the United States, since the 2000 presidential election, blue represents the Democratic Party, and "blue states" are states that tend to favor the Democrats. (The rival right-wing Republicans became associated with red, and states that favor the Republicans are "red states." The Blue Dog Democrat coalition is a caucus of conservative Democrats in Congress.

During the American Civil War, blue was used to represent the Union, while gray represented the Confederacy. This representation was based on the uniforms worn by the respective armies, although uniforms remained non-standard throughout the war and sometimes the colors were switched.
The coalition with the Kuomintang(KMT), People's First Party, and the New Party in Taiwan, which favors unification with mainland China is called the Pan-blue coalition due to the color of the party banner of the Kuomintang which is considered the dominant party of the coalition.

Religion

Blue plays a symbolic role in a number of world religions. In the Hindu faith, persons of a transcendental, or divine nature are displayed as being blue in colour to indicate their dark complexion. To many Jews, because of its association with religious tradition, popular folklore, and the modern state of Israel, it has become the quintessential Jewish color.

In the Torah, the Israelites were commanded to put fringes, tzitzit, on the corners of their garments, and to weave within these fringes a ?twisted thread of blue (tekhelet).? Numbers 15:38. In ancient days, this blue thread was made from a dye extracted from a Mediterranean snail called the hilazon. Blue has been considered especially effective against the Evil Eye, perhaps because blue eyes are such a rarity among Semitic peoples and because blue is so rare in the plant and animal world.

According to several rabbinic sages, blue is the color of God?s Glory. Numbers Rabbah 14:3; in Arabic.) Many items in the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the wilderness, such as the menorah, many of the vessels, and the Ark of the Covenant, were covered with blue cloth when transported from place to place. Numbers 4:6-12.

The Israeli flag has two blue stripes and a blue Star of David against a white background. Modern tallitot, for example, often have blue stripes on a white background.

For more, see Blue in Judiasm.

Television

Blue is the color and name of the main character (a dog) in the preschool animated educational television show Blue's Clues.

On Star Trek, medical and scientific personnel wear blue uniforms.

On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Blue notes are the most important notes in the blues scale.

Bands called "Blue" include two British musical groups: the rock group Blue and the boy band Blue. Blue Man Group is a performance art group founded in New York City in 1987.

Blue Train is an influential jazz album by John Coltrane. Rhapsody in Blue is a symphonic jazz composition for jazz band, piano, and orchestra by George Gershwin, while Love is Blue is a popular tune from the 1960s originally recorded by Vicky Leandros and most notably performed by Paul Mauriat.

"Blue" has been used as a song title by many artists, notably LeAnn Rimes and Eiffel 65. Cristian Castro's song "Azul" (Spanish for "blue") repeats the line "This love is blue as the sea" (Este amor es azul como el mar).

Other songs which use the word blue include:

• "We the People Who Are Darker than Blue" by Curtis Mayfield, appearing on his debut album
  
• "Blue Room in Archway" and "Song from the Blueroom" by The Boo Radleys, both appearing on the album Kingsize
  
• "Blue Jay Way" and "For You Blue" by The Beatles (both written by George Harrison), appearing on the albums Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be respectively
  
• "Blue Turns to Grey" by The Rolling Stones
  
• "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who, appearing on the album Who's Next
  
• "Blue" by Yoko Kanno, featured in hit Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop
  
• "Blue Savannah" by Erasure, appearing on the album Wild!
  
• "Dark Blue" by No Doubt, the last track on their album "Return of Saturn"
  
• "Tangled Up in Blue" by Bob Dylan, the first track on the album Blood on the Tracks
  
• "Miss Blue" by Filter, Appearing as the last listed track on the album Title of Record
  
• "The Blues Are Still Blue" by Belle And Sebastian
  
• "Blue Orchid" by The White Stripes is the first single for their fifth album, "Get Behind Me, Satan".
  
• "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" by Eiffel 65
  
• "Blue" by A Perfect Circle
  
• "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II
  
• "Blue Shades" by Frank Ticheli
  
• "The Blue" by David Gilmour, the third track on the album On An Island.
  
• "Blue" by The Sugababes
  
• "Blue Monday" by New Order (original) as well as Orgy (remake / cover)
  
• "Post Blue" by Placebo
  
• "Out of the Blue" by Delta Goodrem, the first single on the album Mistaken Identity
  
• "Still Got The Blues" by Gary Moore, from the album of the same name
  
• "Blue Spanish Sky" by Chris Isaak from the album Heart Shaped World (on which Wicked Game is also recorded)
  

Use in painting

Traditionally, blue has been considered a primary color in painting, with the secondary color orange as its complement, but this is not consistent with modern scientific color theory. As the mixing of pigments is a subtractive color process, the true primary colors in painting and printing are cyan, magenta and yellow (with black often added for practical reasons;

Blue pigments

• Azurite
  
• Cerulean blue
  
• Cobalt blue
  
• Milori B
  

Natural etalons of blue

• Emission spectrum of Cu²⁺
  
• Electronic spectrum of aqua-ions CuH₂O₅²⁺
  

See also

• Distinguishing "blue" from "green" in language
  
• List of colors
  
• Lapis lazuli