Blue as a Marker of Intensification
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8730947 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kenneth M Morris (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1976 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 1/2 |
| Pages | 35-35 |
| Publication date | 1976-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1283 • E-ISSN: 1527-2133 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/455353 |
| OpenAlex | W2323256015 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
OF THE NUMEROUS SENSES to which the color blue has given rise (Swaen 1936-37; Jacobs and Jacobs 1958), perhaps the most peculiar is its sense of 'extreme, complete' and its related use as a marker of intensification. Webster's Third, which records this sense, gives as illustration a passage from Robert Louis Stevenson: very name [of Paris] put her in a blue fear. The OEDS, which cites the same passage, treats blue fear as a variant of blue funk 'extreme nervousness, tremulous dread' but does not list blue separately as a term denoting intensity. Though the origin of blue 'extreme, complete' remains obscure, it may well have developed from a matrix of earlier established senses which, sharing a common notion of extremity, have reinforced each other to produce the newer, extended meaning. The emergence of another peculiar sense of blue-that indicating obscenity or smuttiness-has already been traced to just such a matrix of associations by Joseph P. Roppolo (1953) in his article 'Blue': Indecent, Obscene. Noting that the origin of this meaning lies not in any one of the theories suggested so much as in all of them taken together, working to perpetuate, to reinforce, and to broaden a usage begun centuries ago (pp. 16-17), Roppolo connects this sense of blue with the color of burning brimstone thought to exist in the nether regions, hence blue blazes 'hell.' Roppolo also attributes the phrases to talk blue, to make the air blue 'to curse, swear,' to the notion that indecent talk was thought to evoke evil spirits or the devil, whose sulfurous presence would cause flames to burn blue. Such talk, Roppolo hypothesizes, 'would become blue talk, and an oath or a curse would become a blue word (p. 17). The process of association and reinforcement that, according to Roppolo, influenced the development of blue 'indecent, obscene' may also have given rise to the use of blue as an intensive adjective. Such a development has been remarked by several lexicographers, most notably Albert Barrbre and Charles G. Leland (1897), who connect blue 'excessive, extreme' with the unfathomable depths of the sea: When this [blue] is used to denote extremes, as 'to drink till all
| Highly cited | No |
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