True blue friend! What's the meaning of true blue friend?

[Fan of Arabian horses]

Hi!

The day before yesterday I enjoyed reading to have, at least, one true blue friend here , although I didn?t really get the meaning of blue. I imagine that blue is a confirmation of the expression true .... friend.

I also could read the term blue in some idioms. Now I wonder what meaning blue has in fact, or how it came to that confirmation. Does it have to do with the charakters of colours, since blue is supposed to be the colour of reliance?

And in what cases is it usual to use the term "blue"?

Thanks in advance, all my true blue friends.

Michael

[Mister Micawber]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000:

true-blue

ADJECTIVE: Loyal or faithful; staunch.
ETYMOLOGY: From the adoption of the color blue by 17th-century Scottish Presbyterians in opposition to the Royalists' red.
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Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mr. Micawber

[Yankee]

Hi Michael

Blue is the color of this forum, of the sky and of the sea, but did you also know that some people have blue blood?

Generally speaking, blue-blooded people are not blue collar workers. However once in a blue moon you just might run across someone from a high social class doing some real physical work. Take Mr. Blaublut, for example. Blaublut has many generations of blue blood flowing through his veins. Unfortunately for Blaublut, he had squandered the family fortune and one day found himself completely penniless. He was between the devil and the deep blue sea: His blue blood upbringing made him allergic to doing physical work, but the only way for him to earn some money was to accept the only job that had been offered to him --- a factory job. He was forced to take the job. Working in a factory made Blaublut feel quite blue. He thought the work was beneath him and he wasn't used to all the physical labor. Also, having never had any experience doing any sort of real work, Blaublut frequently suffered work-related injuries. As a result, he was frequently black and blue from head to toe. Blaublut's boss at the factory could talk until he was blue in the face, giving Blaublut advice on how to do things correctly and also safely. Month after month the boss tried to provide good tips, but Blaublut simply refused to listen. Instead, he just continued singing the blues about having to work in such a terrible place.

Then one day, completely out of the blue, Blaublut simply stopped reporting to work at the factory. He'd made a sudden decision to join his true blue friend Capt'n Jan on his ship and sail off into the wild blue yonder....

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Fan of Arabian horses]

Hi Amy!

The term "blue-blooded" is well known for noble people and your nice obvious true blue story reminds me an anecdote I myself experienced with such people.

When I was handball-coach there was a noble girl in that team I trained. She was a Baroness having that title in Belgium but living here in Germany. Now, as you surely know handball is a very bodyful game and most of the players are either fighting the game or playing. What the little Baroness differed from the others was that she was dancing handball since she also was educated in ballet. That doesn?t make her a worse player, quite the opposite because her opponents often didn?t understand what she was doing there while were trained in classical handball only. I took her fortune and taught her the move and strategie of handball and mixed with her very own style she was successful. Later she got a coach who didn?t see her fortune and tried to make her a blue-collar-player. Unfortunately or as you probably can imagine that doesn?t work.

Thanks for your excourse into the blue world

Michael

[Tamara]

Hi

By the way, in Russian we use two equivalent expressions for that: "blue blood" and "white bone".

Tamara
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It’s impossible to learn swimming without entering the water…