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BLUE
Definition of BLUE
adjective
Of a blue hue.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Where it comes from
From Middle English blew, blewe, from Anglo-Norman blew, from Middle French bleu, from Old French blöe, bleve, blef (“blue”), from Frankish *blāu (“blue”) (perhaps through a Late Latin blāvus, blāvius (“blue”) attested from Isidore of Seville), from Proto-Germanic *blēwaz (“blue, dark blue”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlēw- (“yellow, blond, grey”). Cognate with dialectal English blow (“blue”), Scots blue, blew (“blue”), North Frisian bla, blö (“blue”), Saterland Frisian blau (“blue”), Dutch blauw (“blue”), German blau (“blue”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish blå (“blue”), Faroese bláur (“blue”), Icelandic blár (“blue”), Latin flāvus (“yellow”), French bleu (“blue”), Middle Irish blá (“yellow”). Doublet of blow. Possibly related also to English blee (“colour”), from Old English blēo (“colour”); but direct derivatives of Proto-Germanic *blēwaz (“blue, dark blue”) in Old English include: Old English blāw and blēo (“blue”), Old English blǣwen (“bluish, light-blue”), blǣhǣwen (“blue-coloured, bluish, violet or purple colour”, literally “blue-hued”). There seems to be a parallel connection in Germanic between words for blue and colour, dually exemplified by Proto-West Germanic *blīu (“colour, blee”) and *blāu (“blue”); and Proto-Germanic *hiwją (“colour, hue”) and *hāwī (“blue, purple”). (depressed): Compare typologically Russian тоска́ зелёная (toská zeljónaja) (<+ зелёный (zeljónyj)). Also compare фиоле́тово (fiolétovo).
Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).
Word DNA
Line of descent
- Proto-Indo-European
- Proto-Germanic
- Latin
- Frankish
- Old French
- Middle French
- Anglo-Norman
- Middle English
- English
8 recorded generations before English.
Deepest traced root
3rd
of 58 source languages in OUTLIER
9%
of traced words share this origin (2,589)
How it is built
Same root, BLUE · 4 relatives in the game
Its etymology also names Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Irish, Norwegian, Old English, Russian, Scots and 1 more.
Every Proto-Indo-European word → · The Word DNA of OUTLIER →
OUTLIER scores every word on how unusual it is, and that number is not published. Working it out at the board is the game.
BLUE in OUTLIER
It has fitted 2 boards so far. 28 players have found it across Outlier's history.
It first turned up on Day 76, 4 August 2026. The most recent board was Day 118, 15 September 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 26 days.
First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.
Built from these letters
BLUE starts with B and ends with E. Sorted, its letters read BELU - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.
Same letters, different word
One other word uses exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.
Words that start BLUE
Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.
Could you have found BLUE?
OUTLIER is a daily word game. One grid, the same grid for everybody, and the words nobody else spots are the ones that pay. This word was on Day 76 - and most players walked straight past it.
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