Blue in Our Everyday Life Trivia Quiz

Answer: The deep blue sea

The phrase was once thought to be "between the devil and the Red Sea". However, when the sea turned blue at a later time, the phrase evolved to "between the devil and the deep blue sea" instead. Believe that if you like. Either way, if you're in that unpleasant situation, it means that you're in trouble because you're being forced to make a selection between two equally unappealing choices.

Answer: Lower social class

Where white collar crimes are said to be carried out by people from a higher social class in society, blue collar crimes are said to be carried out by those from the "lower" classes. What a dreadfully snooty way to make the distinction between the two.

There was a time in our history, though, when people - normally men only - who worked in higher paid employment invariably wore white shirts, ties and business suits to work. Shirts are certainly more colourful today when worn by people of a professional standing, but the suits and tie remain the same. On the other hand, people (normally men) who worked in lower paid employment (such as road gangs, railway men, miners and the like), although they certainly may or may not have worn blue shirts, they certainly wouldn't have worn white ones.

They would have been soiled to Burke and back by the very nature of those jobs.

Answer: Like a bolt from the blue

If anything has happened to you which is completely and utterly unexpected, and is either good or bad, it is said to have happened like a bolt from the blue. Lightning would be totally unexpected coming from a clear blue sky, and this is how your situation would be described.

This term hasn't been around for as long as you may think. It appears to have been first recorded by Thomas Carlyle, in his 1837 work "The French Revolution".

Answer: The blues

If you've suffering from an attack of the blues, you certainly are not in the mood for happy music, or any music at all usually, unless it's very sad melodies. The blues genre, though, could be likened to that emotional state, or certainly very pensive to say the least. Usually though, suffering from an attack of the blues means you're feeling very glum indeed, depressed and gloomy.

This term, associating the colour blue with sadness, was first recorded back in 1385 in Chaucer's work "Complaint of Mars". Colours have been associated with moods for very many years. If people are happy, excited, or in love, they're said to have a pink glow about them; if angry, they're red in the face; if feeling ill, they've gone green; and if frightened or fearful, they've turned white.

Answer: Blue plate special

Originating in the United States during the tougher economic times of the early 1920s, blue plate specials, which are still seen today, are set meals often seen for sale at pubs or low-priced cafes. They are sold at prices that have been reduced, as opposed to choices of other dishes on the menu at the same reduced prices.

It's a very sensible idea, and since these establishments offer these dishes to bring in customers, they're usually quite tasty and appealing--if somewhat lacking in choice. We often see them here in Australia at various eating establishments, listed on blackboards at any front entrance under the heading of "Specials of the Day".

Answer: Like a blue streak

To talk like a blue streak simply means to yack away very rapidly and incessantly, and usually about nothing at all. Nonstop chatterers who seldom stop to draw breath tend to make listeners feel a bit disoriented after a while. That's because our brain grows weary of trying to decipher any real import of their words from the froth and bubble they otherwise contain. Still, voluble people such as this are quite good company if you need cheering up. Either that, or they'll drive you over the edge completely.

Answer: Once in a blue moon

This term that we hear people use in general conversations from time to time is largely self-explanatory. Something happens or tends to happen to them only now and then, once in a while, or once in that blue moon. Oddly enough, our moon does appear to be blue at times, but this too only happens rarely.

It usually takes place after a volcanic eruption, when the increased particles in the air make the moon seem red if it is where we can see it at sunset, but then appear to have a blue tinge to it later that night. "Once in a blue moon" has also been associated with the phenomena of two full moons appearing in our skies in the one lunar month--not at the same time though, any prophets of doom will be disappointed to learn.

Answer: Royalty or aristocrats

This expression can be heard in Britain, The US and Australia, and in the US and Australia is also sometimes known as screaming bloody murder as well. Blue blood is said to be the colour of blood flowing through the veins of very old aristocratic European families whose lineage can be traced back through many centuries. Looking back through time, one of the reasons for this comical notion is that these people, who never had to work away at hard and often sooty jobs on a daily basis often retained the lovely fair skins with which they were endowed. If this was the case, particularly with the women, the blue veins on their wrists, elbows and any other parts of the body where surface veins can be seen stood out distinctly against that pure white skin.

This led to the notion that the blood they contained was indeed blue. In reality, if they did possess blue blood, their lineage wouldn't have a lineage at all. They'd be dead.

Answer: The boys in blue

The "boys in blue" is an everyday turn of phrase we often hear being applied to member of the blue uniform clad police officers--in those countries in which the police do wear blue, that is. It is presumed, but cannot be stated with absolute certainty, that this saying originated when blue uniforms began to be worn by these law enforcing members of the government.

Answer: Screaming blue murder

There doesn't actually have be a murder involved in this saying, but to scream blue murder is to be hollering your head off very loudly indeed at anything that has either alarmed you quite considerably or upset you in any other way. Searching for the origin of this term proved difficult, but one possible explanation is as follows: It appears to be French, when if anything terrible took place, the cry of "morbleu!" (God's death) was once heard.

This evolved over time to be associated with anything terrible once again, but also anything astonishing as well, to become "sacre Dieu!", and from that to "sacre bleu!" Perhaps English speaking people were slightly dyslexic when they translated "bleu" into "blue".