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For other uses, see Blue (disambiguation).
The term blue may refer any of a number of similar colours. When blue is a pure colour from a single source, it corresponds with a wavelength range of about 440–490 nm. Blue is considered to be one of the three primary additive colours in the RGB system; blue light has the shortest wavelength range of the three additive primary colours. The English language commonly uses "blue" to refer to any colour from navy blue to cyan. The complementary colour of blue in colour science is yellow (on the HSV colour wheel), while in art the complementary colour to blue is considered to be orange (based on the Munsell colour wheel).
Blue in the RGB systemIn the RGB colour system, colours are formed by mixing a red, a green and a blue colour. When talking about RGB, therefore, some people use blue to mean that specific blue, which varies in shade according to the device used to display the RGB colour. Absolute colour spaces based on RGB, such as sRGB, define an exact colour for this blue, which may differ from the actual blue used in a particular computer monitor. Naming and etymology
As a curiosity, blue is thought to be cognate with blond and black through the Germanic word. Through a Proto-Indoeuropean root, it is also linked with Latin flavus ("yellow"; see flavescent and flavine), with Greek phalos (white), French blanc (white) (loaned from Old Frankish), and with Russian белый, belyi ("white," see beluga), and Welsh blawr (grey) all of which derive (according to the American Heritage Dictionary) from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel- meaning "to shine, flash or burn", (more specifically the word bhle-was, which meant light coloured, blue, blond, or yellow), from whence came the names of various bright colours, and that of colour black from a derivation meaning "burnt" (other words derived from the root bhel- include bleach, bleak, blind, blink, blank, blush, blaze, flame ,fulminate, flagrant and phlegm). In the English language, blue may also refer to the feeling of sadness. "He was feeling blue". This is because blue was related to rain, or storms, and in Greek mythology, the god Zeus would make rain when he was sad, and a storm when he was angry. Blue is also used as a name occasionally. Blue and green in other languagesMany languages do not have separate terms for blue and or green, instead using a cover term for both (when the issue is discussed in linguistics, this cover term is sometimes called grue in English). For example, in Vietnamese both tree leaves and the sky are xanh (to distinguish, one may use xanh lá cây "leaf grue" for green and xanh dương "ocean grue" for blue). Chinese has a word 青 qīng that can refer to both, though it also has separate words for blue (蓝 / 藍, lán) and green (绿 / 綠, lǜ). The Korean word (푸르다"puruda") can mean either green or blue. In Japanese the word for blue (青 ao) is often used for colours that English speakers would refer to as green, such as the colour of a traffic signal meaning "go". Some Nguni languages of southern Africa, including Tswana utilize the same word for blue and green. In traditional Welsh (and related Celtic languages), glas could refer to blue but also to certain shades of green and grey; however, modern Welsh is tending toward the 11-colour Western scheme, restricting glas to blue and using gwyrdd for green and llwyd for grey. Similarly, in Gaelic, glas can mean various shades of green and grey (like the sea), while liath is grey proper (like a horse), and the term for blue proper is gorm (like the sky or Cairngorm mountains). In Old Norse the word blá was also used to describe black (and the common word for negroes was thus blámenn 'blue/black men'). In Swedish, blå, the modern word for blue, was used this way until the early 20th century. In many languages of India, blue is "buru"or "BLU"
Blue in RussianOn the other hand, Russian does not have a single word referring to the whole range of colours denoted by the English term "blue." Instead, it traditionally treats light blue (голубой, goluboy) as a separate colour independent from plain or dark blue (синий, siniy), with all 7 "basic" colours of the spectrum (red - orange - yellow - green - (ru:голубой / goluboy / light blue, not equal cyan) - (ru:синий / siniy / dark blue) - violet) while in English the light blues like azure and cyan are considered mere shades of "blue" and not different colours. To better understand this, consider that English makes a similar distinction between "red" and light red (pink, which is considered a different colour and not merely a kind of red), but such a distinction is unknown in several other languages; for example, both "red" (红 / 紅, hóng) and "pink" (粉红, fěn hóng, lit. "powder red") have traditionally been considered varieties of a single colour in Chinese. Blue in ItalianLike Russian, Italian treats light blue ("azzurro") as a separate colour, which is to blue as pink is to red. Blue in HebrewLike Russian and Italian, Hebrew has a separate name for light blue (תכלת, "tchelet") - the colour of the sky - which is to blue as pink is to red (like the Italian "azzuro"). Blue in TurkishFinally, it has been argued that Turkish treats dark or navy blue (lacivert, curiously from the same root as English azure and lapis lazuli) as a separate colour from plain or light blue (mavi). Mavi is etymologically originated from the Arabic word Ma'i, which meant "like water" (Ma is the Arabic word for water) and lacivert is originated from lajvard, which was accounted as an expensive gem with the colour of navy blue. Some historians argue that lajvard was the Farsi name for lapis lazuli, although there is no solid evidence to prove this claim right. In Shamanism, the preislamic religion of Turks, Blue is the colour that represented the East as opposed to Red, as well as the Zodiac Aquarius (Water). A characteristic tone of blue, Turqoise, was much used by the Turks for their traditional decorations and jewelry. Blue in the environmentA clear sky on a sunny day appears blue because of Rayleigh scattering of the light from the Sun. Bodies of water often appear blue due to reflections from the sky. Large quantities of ice or water appear blue because red light around 750 nm is absorbed as an overtone of the O-H stretching vibration. Heavy water is colourless, because the absorption band (~950 nm) is outside the visible spectrum. Plants
Animals
When a dog or cat is described as having a "blue" coat, it refers to a shade of grey which takes on a bluish tint, a diluted variant of a pure black coat. Breeds such as the Kerry Blue Terrier dog and the Chartreux and Russian Blue cats have solid "blue" coats, as does the "British Blue" variety of the British Shorthair cat. Others, such as the Australian Shepherd and Border Collie, may have blue merle coats, which is "blue" mixed in with a solid, usually brown or black, base colour. (See also Blue Dog Democrats, below). The western skink has a brilliant cobalt blue tail. GeographyMountains and ranges
National Parkway
Rivers
Shades of blue colour comparison chart
Blue in human cultureThe colour blue has a number of uses in human culture, including art and science. See also
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