Saturday 20 August 2016

Blue (August)


This August I went in search of Blue. Oxford says Red and Yellow are Old English, while Blue first shows up in Middle English, i.e. after say 1100. Wikipedia, however, says Blao is Old Saxon. This does not prove Blao was a common vocal sound being made across the Atlantic Archipelago before the Battle of Hastings, and probably was peculiar to the Low Lands. All of this plays into our modern perception that the Ancients thought of Blue as a type of Green. Green is Old English. We will never know if the English saw woad as Blue or Green.

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