etymology - Origin of the of the phrase feeling blue - English . . . If you are sad and describe yourself as "feeling blue," you are using a phrase coined from a custom among many old deepwater sailing ships If the ship lost the captain or any of the officers during its voyage, she would fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along her entire hull when returning to home port Also, see Origins of Navy Terminology for other expressions
etymology - What is the origin of the term red team for a group . . . 9 In information security, the military, etc , a "red team" is a group that plays the role of an adversary in a simulated engagement (with the "blue team" on the other side of the engagement) What is the origin of this term?
Why does blue blazes specify the color blue, and what is the origin . . . The Wikipedia article on sulfur confirms the flame color: Sulfur burns with a blue flame with formation of sulfur dioxide, which has a suffocating and irritating odor But is that the original rationale for "blue blazes"? Also, when and where did the earliest recorded instances of "blue blazes" and "blue blazes of hell" occur?
Why are Australian redheads often called bluey? - slang The Virgin Blue name was the result of an open competition; it was a play on the predominantly red livery and the Australian slang tradition of calling a red-headed male 'Blue' or 'Bluey' This is confirmed on other sites such as this one How did blue come to represent red in Australia?
What is the origin of the term blue ruin for low-end gin? BLUE RUIN Gin Blue ribband: gin This 1811 updating of Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785, 1788, 1796) is the first in the series to include an entry for either "blue ruin" or "blue ribband" as a slang term for gin
Where did the phrase blue sky thinking come from? The true origin is what you’d expect in a business setting: In the early 20th century, “blue sky” was frequently applied to describe fraud — notably, financiers who would inflate and over-capitalize securities based on nothing more tangible than “blue sky and hot air ”