blue blood
/ˈbluˌblʌd/ noun
Forms blue bloods blue-blood blueblood
- noun (uncountable) Noble or aristocratic ancestry.
- noun (countable) An aristocrat.
- noun Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blue, blood. “Octopuses and squids are examples of animals that have blue blood.”
Synonyms
Etymology
Calque of Spanish sangre azul (compare also French sang bleu), probably in reference to the blue-hued veins more easily seen on the skin of White people—particularly the highclass ones, whereas the skin of lowclass/peasantry Caucasians (who would often be toiling away under the sun) would naturally tan in order to protect itself from UV rays, thus losing its visible veins.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “blue blood”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details