What are the origins of these expressions?
And don’t forget “the gals”, the “pink collar workers”
It was usual for miner, janitors, etc. to wear blue shirts, where desk workers wore white shirts, ties, and jackets. The terms grew from that.
chuck I’d love to know where you got your info that manual laborers wore blue shirts. I don’t doubt that they did. Just want a cite.
I think it is interesting and provocative to note that my M-W Collegiate gives 1920 as the first in-print for “white collar” and 1946 for “blue collar.”
I intuitively know that laborers would not wear white or light-colored shirts in their jobs.
A lot of work uniforms were denim based, with the basic color being blue. I don’t know that blue was actually more prevalent than tan, green, or khaki, but it was a fairly prevalent color. A quick check through some WWII era National Geographics might show whether blue was really the most prevalent color.
Tell that one to painters.
Peace,
mangeorge
Go to a thrift store, and look at the color of work shirts. There are ALOT of old blue shirts other than that, Im not sure a cite exists.
-PSM