Word of the Day: Blue
blue / blo͞o
adjective
1. of the color between green and violet on the spectrum
Blue skies smiling at me,
Nothing but blue skies do I see.
Irving Berlin, 1888-1989
2. of the skin, discolored due to cold
I play until my fingers are blue and stiff from the cold, and then I keep on playing.
From ‘Revolution’ by Jennifer Donnelly, 1963-
3. melancholy; in low spirits
Mama says that, happiness is from magic rays of sunshine that come down when you’re feeling blue.
Adam Sandler, 1966-
4. tinged with the coolest of primary colors
So when the blue smoke of brittle leaves was in the air and the wind blew the wet laundry stiff on the line I decided to come back home.
From ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940
5. risqué
If you don’t want to hear a joke that’s blue, you shouldn’t go to a comedy club where a comedian who makes blue jokes is performing.
Gilbert Gottfried, 1955-
6. in music, a note that creates discordance
Most other American vernacular music uses blue notes tool jazz, funk, rock, country, gospel, folk and so on.
noun
1. the primary color which falls in between green and violet on the spectrum
Blue is the color of peace.
Antonio Brown, 1988-
2. something in a shade of the coolest primary color
The sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night.
From ‘Dance Dance Dance’ by Haruki Murakami, 1949-
3. plural, a genre of music characterized by a call-and-response pattern; often capitalized
Everything comes out in blues music: joy, pain, struggle. Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance.
Wynton Marsalis, 1961-
Thank you for including the Dictionary Project in the good work you do in your club. In my club, we have provided Dictionaries for third-grade students for enough years that now we are having former students help us to present dictionaries each year. They are often returning to the same classrooms that they were third-grade students. Teachers plead every year for us to NEVER quit this valuable project. They tell us that students NEED paper books to learn to read, to learn to do research and to do independent study. Please send me pictures of your presentations and tell me about your visits to the schools to give dictionaries to the students. To be included in our newsletter you can send me your stories at DG.2019@5630mail.org.
