The origin of "blue blood"

[Phidippides]

I came across this article today:

Sarah Palin dismisses Barbara Bush as a ?blue blood?

I wasn't sure what "blue blood" meant exactly, but it appears to date back to Spain when lighter-skinned aristocrats found some sort of confirmation in their rule by the fact that the blood in their veins was bluer than those of regular-folk, whose veins could not be seen quite as well.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-blu1.htm

[donroc]

My sources agree with you. Also, Hitler and his low born followers referred to the European royals and nobility, who were connected by blood regardless of post WWI nationality, as The Blue Internationale.

[Aetheling]

Hence "Blue Moon" !?

[scout1067]

Actually the term "Blue Moon" comes from their being more than 3 full moons in a Lunar season.

[Phidippides]

I thought that "Blue Moon" was simply the second full moon in a calendar month, which is rare since a full moon occurs around once every thirty days.

[scout1067]

I thought the same thing until a few years ago.  Sky & Telescope just published another piece about it recently: What's a Blue Moon?  I guess I am the neighborhood space geek around here.

[Aetheling]

I tried to argue about this until I was blue in the face;
Blood, Moon, Movie, Collar spontaneously took me in a trip into the blue ...;
and finally that Fruit Moon, according to the Maine almanac's rules coming out of the blue !!   

[skiguy]

Leann Rimes - Blue-oo-oo-oo-oo-oooo

[Phidippides]

I thought the same thing until a few years ago.  Sky & Telescope just published another piece about it recently: What's a Blue Moon?  I guess I am the neighborhood space geek around here.

Meh!  That's lame....two full-moons in a month is noteworthy in itself because of its rarity, and it should have a name regardless.  Anyway, I am all for the value of appropriation regardless of usage, like they said in the article:

Why not treat Blue Moons the same way, marking both the second full Moon in a calendar month and the third full Moon in a season with four? "Even if the calendrical meaning is new," said Federer, "I don't see any harm in it. It's something fun to talk about, and it helps attract people to astronomy."

Perhaps the original "blue moon" label can be referred to as something else to distinguish it, like "true blue moon" or even "blue blood moon". 

[AndrewDavis]

The term "blue blood" originated in Spain. It was used to differentiate between people with pale skin (Europeans) from others.

[Daniel]

Starting about 406 A.D. Spain was invaded by Germanic peoples (Vandals, Sueves, Alans, Goths, Visagoths, etc.) and eventually established a monarchy that ruled the Iberian peoples of Spain.

Roderic, a Visagoth, was the of the Gothic kings to rule in Spain.  He was defeated and killed by the invading Moors around 710 AD.  Due to the conquest by the Muslim Moors there was a nostalgic remembrance of the Gothic rule that is still part of Spanish culture.

To this day in Spain there are blue eyed, blond hair descendants of the Visigoths.  Tracing ancestry back to Visigoths is very prestigious in Spain; something like in America having an ancestor that was on the Mayflower.

Hence the term "blue blood" in Spain refers to what is perceived as the (rightful) former ruling class that was displaced by the Moors.   

 





 

[Notch]

Actually the term "Blue Moon" comes from their being more than 3 full moons in a Lunar season.

Wonder if that is a reference to the "blue" note in a musical scale, which is the third?

And if so, why the significance of "blue" unless possibly related to the "blue blood" thing? Hmmm...