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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cosmicforce who wrote (94107)	1/20/2005 1:25:59 AM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I did not find the same meaning for "blue blood." Perhaps scientists use different etymology sources? I do think your meaning is interesting, but could not imagine how a toxin severe enough to change the color of one's blood could be harmless, so I checked: BLUE BLOOD [Q] From Jennifer Bunner in the USA: “I was wondering about the origin of the phrase blue blood.” [A] Unlike so many other expressions, this one is well documented. It’s a direct translation of the Spanish sangre azul. Many of the oldest and proudest families of Castile used to boast that they were pure bred, having no link with the Moors who had for so long controlled the country, or indeed any other group. As a mark of this, they pointed to their veins, which seemed bluer in colour than those of such foreigners. This was simply because the blue-tinted venous blood showed up more prominently in their lighter skin, but they took it to be a mark of their pure breeding. So the phrase blue blood came to refer to the blood which flowed in the veins of the oldest and most aristocratic families. The phrase was taken over into English in the 1830s. World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–2005. All rights reserved. Contact the author for reproduction requests. Comments and feedback are always welcome. Page created 20 November 1999. worldwidewords.org