blue blood
Who taught : Jessy
“A women struck by lightening and died a minute before a proposal.”
This is a real story which happened today in North Carolina. Richard Butler who planned to propose to his girl friend, Bethany Lott, took her to a hike to a mountain in NC to make her think it is just a hike. He was going to propose to her on the top of the mountain. But, a few minutes before they got to the top, lightening struck her and she was dead. She was just 25 years old. What a sad story! I feel really sorry and do not know what to say. My condolence to her!
King Sejong of Joseon Dynasty
Moving on to today’s expression, if you hear someone saying the following sentence, what would you think the guy is?
“That guy’s blood is so blue.” or “That guy has blue blood.”
My first impression was that he must be very cold-blooded. I think blue sounds very cold. Maybe it is because of reptiles. What do you think? Wouldn’t you agree?
Two days ago, Jessy and I were on the way to a driving range. In our car, she told me a story about a celebrity women who is going to marry a guy whose family is noble. She asked me, “Do you know what they say in this situation?” “I don’t know. Maybe like, she is marrying a rich and arrogant guy. How long they will stay together?” I said. Well, she said “No, she marries blue blood.”
So, blue blood is the expression to describe nobility and royal family members. Based on the Urban Dictionary, it comes from the medieval belief that aristocratic blood was blue.
Well, apparently, I have red blood and I am not a royal family member. But, maybe, Jessy has blue blood because her ancestor was royal member in South Korea. One of her ancestors was a Queen in the Joseon Dynasty. She married to Sejong, the Great of Joseon and her official title was the Queen Consort Soheon. Now, it is funny! I actually married blue blood.
While that is what “blue blood” means, I don’t hear it that much. Maybe I just don’t travel in the right social circles though. I guess around here, people bleed “black and gold” 😉
Another expression this reminds me of is “born with a silver spoon in his mouth”. You can probably guess what it means from the context.
I’ve heard that the expression “blue blood” comes from the diseases that were common to the monarchy of Europe – they intermarried and all lived in similar circumstances, and one of the things that lots of them suffered from was lead poisoning, which made their veins look very blue under their skin? Of course, their blood was still red, but it looked blue from the outside.
In your post, you said “My condolence to her!”, which is not quite right – when you give condolences, you give them to the people who are still alive, and you always give more than one. So “My condolences to him and her family!” would be more appropriate.
Thank you so much for pointing out for the mistake related with condolences. I did not know that. Cool!
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