Editing Blue (section)

==Etymology and linguistics==
The [[modern English]] word ''blue'' comes from [[Middle English]] {{Lang|enm|bleu}} or {{Lang|enm|blewe}}, from the [[Old French]] {{Lang|fro|bleu}}, a word of [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] origin, related to the [[Old High German]] word {{Lang|goh|blao}} (meaning 'shimmering, lustrous').<ref name="Webster 1970">''Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary'' (1970).</ref> In [[heraldry]], the word ''[[azure (heraldry)|azure]]'' is used for ''blue''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A New Dictionary of Heraldry |date=1987 |publisher=[[A & C Black|Alphabooks/A&C Black]] |isbn=978-0-906670-44-6 |editor-last=Friar |editor-first=Stephen |location=London |pages=40, 343}}</ref>

In [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]], [[Irish language|Irish]], and some other languages, there is no single word for blue, but rather different words for light blue (Russian: {{Lang|ru|голубой}}, {{Transliteration|ru|goluboj}}) and dark blue (Russian: {{Lang|ru|синий}}, {{Transliteration|ru|sinij}}) (see [[Colour term]]).

Several languages, including [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and [[Lakota language|Lakota Sioux]], use the same word to describe blue and green. For example, in [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], the colour of both tree leaves and the sky is {{Lang|vi|xanh}}. In Japanese, the word for blue ({{Lang|ja|[[wikt:青#Japanese|青]]}}, {{Transliteration|ja|ao}}) is often used for colours that English speakers would refer to as green, such as the colour of a [[traffic signal]] meaning "go". In Lakota, the word {{Lang|lkt|[[wikt:tȟó|tȟó]]}} is used for both blue and green, the two colours not being distinguished in older Lakota (for more on this subject, see [[Blue–green distinction in language]]).

Linguistic research indicates that languages do not begin by having a word for the colour blue.<ref name="languages">{{Cite podcast |author=Tim Howard |url=https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/211213-sky-isnt-blue |title=Why Isn't the Sky Blue? |website=[[Radiolab]] at WNYC Studios |date=20 May 2012 |access-date=27 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181025072538/https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/211213-sky-isnt-blue |archive-date=25 October 2018 |others=Linguist: [[Guy Deutscher (linguist)|Guy Deutscher]]; Professor: Jules Davidoff}}</ref> Colour names often developed individually in natural languages, typically beginning with [[black]] and [[white]] (or dark and light), and then adding [[red]], and only much later – usually as the last main category of colour accepted in a language – adding the colour blue, probably when blue pigments could be manufactured reliably in the culture using that language.<ref name="languages" />