Wiktionary

blue blood

See also: blueblood and blue-blood

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Calque of Spanish sangre azul, probably a reference to the more visible veins of White people.[1]

Noun

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blue blood (countable and uncountable, plural blue bloods)

  1. (uncountable) Noble or aristocratic ancestry.
  2. (countable) An aristocrat.
    • 1964 June 16, “All Eyes On Lema At U.S. Open This Week”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 62, number 11, Indianapolis, Ind., page 22:
      The bluebloods of golf began pouring into the sweltering nation’s capital yesterday for the 64th U.S. Open championship, and the hottest topic was not Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus, but Champagne Tony Lema.
    • 2024 May 3, Jacob Bernstein, Madison Malone Kircher, Sapna Maheshwari, “TikTok’s Boss Goes From Reserved Tech Exec to Met Gala Chair”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      His expected appearance at the Met Gala — once a staid affair for New York blue bloods that has become an East Coast Oscars on Ms. Wintour’s watch — can be viewed as part of TikTok’s shift in how it presents itself to the public.
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blue,‎ blood.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “blue blood”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
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