A.W.A.D. - Words with Colour as Metaphor

Red: Stop. Green: Go.

These two colors have universally accepted meanings, but only when it comes to traffic. Meanings of colors change across cultures, and even within a culture. If your business is in the black, that's a good thing, but if you are blackballed, well, that's a problem. Red ink is bad news but a red-letter day is a happy occasion. A blue moon is a very long period of time but a blue law has nothing to do with length.

This week we'll meet five terms related to colors -- blue, red, white, purple, and blue again -- and how they affect words' shades of meaning.

cordon bleu
(kawr don BLOO) adjective
Of the highest class.
noun
A person of great distinction in a field, especially applied to a chef.

[From French, literally, blue ribbon. Under the Bourbon kings in France, a blue ribbon was worn by knights of the highest order.]

redbrick
(RED-brik) adjective
Lacking prestige.

[The term usually describes universities. A redbrick university is one built in the UK after WWII, as opposed to the older prestigious institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge. The term is mostly used in the UK. A contrasting term in the US is Ivy League. An Ivy League university is one of several in the northeastern US that have high prestige and a reputation for scholastic achievement. The term alludes to the age of the universities reflected in the ivy that festoons the outside walls of the buildings on campus.]

purple prose
(PUR-puhl proz) noun
An overly ornate piece of writing.

[Two synonyms of the term are 'purple passage' and 'purple patch'. The idea comes from Latin pannus purpureus (purple patch), a phrase used by the poet Horace in his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) to suggest a patch of royal fabric on an ordinary cloth, a brilliant piece of writing in an overall dull work. Purple was the color of choice by the royalty as the purple dye was the most rare and hence most expensive.]

white-shoe
(hwyt, wyt shoo) noun

Pertaining to a business or those who run it, typically conservative, rich, and elite, in fields such as law, finance, etc.

[Apparently from the earlier popularity of white shoes among such men.]

blue streak
(bloo streek) noun
1. Something moving very fast
2. A rapid and seemingly endless stream of words

[Or unknown origin, perhaps an allusion to a bolt of lightning.]