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The
modern English word blue comes from the
Middle English, bleu or blwe, which came from an
Old French word bleu of
Germanic origin (Frankish or possibly
Old High German blao, "shining"). Bleu replaced Old English blaw. The root of these variations was the Proto-Germanic blæwaz, which was also the root of the Old Norse word bla and the modern
Icelandic blár, and the
Scandinavian word blå, but it can refer to other non blue colours. A
Scots and
Scottish English word for "blue-grey" is blae, from the Middle English bla ("dark blue", from the
Old English blæd). Ancient Greek lacked a word for blue and
Homer called the colour of the sea
"wine dark", except that the word kyanos (cyan) was used for dark blue enamel.
[Entry-150]
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