what is the origin of the phrase “Blue Language”
Wild guess: I’ve often heard people say things like “his cursing turned the air blue for miles,” and have always assumed it referred to the color of smoke, e.g. the person’s language was so hot it smoked like hellfire.
Then again, there are “blue laws” and “blue murder.” Maybe “blue” is sort of a polite version of “bloody?”
Blue*laws * refer to the color of the paper upon which the faith-based laws were written in 16??, New Haven colony. I’ll see if I can cook up an entertaining follow up and tie in for blue LAWS, blue NOSE, blue BLOOD and blue CAJONES. Hell, it might even be right!
Probably the early 1800’s.
This is a link to a rather good article by Michael Quinion, who writes one of the 2-3 best linguistic sites out there. Generally, state of the art.
Notice he sorta poo-poos the blue laws=blue paper theory.