Where does the phrase to "scream blue murder" originate?
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lady fuschia
ANSWERS: 2
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According to "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable"... Blue murder. To scream or shout blue murder. Indicative of terror and alarm rather than real danger. It appears to be a play on the French expression "morbleu". According to me... "Morbleu" is an obsolete curse. "Mor" is derived from "mort", death. The expression "morbleu" literally means "blue death". The word "blue" ("bleu") is used as a substitute for the word "God" ("dieu") in some French-language curses. For example, the expression "sacré bleu", which remains in common use, literally means "sacred blue". It is more accurately rendered as "God damn". I have never understood the connection between the colour blue ("bleu") and the sanctity of God (e.g., "sacré bleu" in place of "sacré dieu"). Perhaps it is no more complicated than the fact that "bleu" rhymes with "dieu". In English, we find that the word "Heck" replaces "Hell" in curses and "Land sakes" replaces "Lord sakes" or "For the sake of the Lord". These are not expressions found in most dictionaries.
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Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. To shout blue murder. Indicative more of terror or alarm than of real danger. It appears to be a play on the French exclamation morbleu; there may also be a distinct allusion to the common phrase “blue ruin.” The origin of this one is a play on the French morbleu, where 'bleu' was a euphemism for 'dieu' - this occurs also in 'sacré bleu'. The related to get away with blue murder must have the same source, but has no overtones of fear or terror, merely good fortune. Blue is occasionally added to words to strengthen them, eg blue blazes, blue funk. From the net.
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