Blue-gray explained

Blue-gray (also blue-grey in British English) is a medium blue-gray color on the cool side of the color wheel. The name blue-gray was introduced by Crayola for a crayon color used from 1958 to 1990. The complementary color is #CC9966, a warm khaki or brown.

It has historically been called livid, from the Latin lividus, meaning "a dull leaden-blue color".^[2] The word entered English in the fifteenth century, first in medical use to describe the bluish-gray discoloration of bruised or damaged flesh, the condition also expressed in the phrase "black and blue".^[3] The familiar modern sense of livid meaning furiously angry developed later, via the intermediate sense of a face turning pale or ashen with rage.^[3]

There is a wide range of named blue-gray or livid shades, including steel blue, glaucous, cadet grey, and Payne's grey, among others. The color appears in nature, culture, and military uniform traditions around the world.

Variations of blue-gray

The colors below are arranged according to value (brightness, the V code in HSV), lightest at the top and darkest towards the bottom.

Lavender gray

The historical name for this color is lavender gray. It is listed in A Dictionary of Color as one of the three major variations of lavender in 1930 along with lavender blue (shown below) and [floral] lavender (also shown below).^[5] (This book also designates a fourth shade of lavender, called old lavender, also shown below). This color is similar to Prismacolor colored pencil PC 1026, Greyed Lavender.

Iceberg

The color iceberg is displayed at right.

The first recorded use of iceberg as a color name in English was in 1921.^[7]

Slate blue

Displayed at right is the web color slate blue.

The first recorded use of slate blue as a color name in English was in 1796.^[9]

Blue bell

Blue bell is a shade of blue-gray. It is also a Crayola color. It represents the bluebell flower.

The first recorded use of bluebell as a color name in English was in 1920.^[10]

Glaucous

See main article: Glaucous.

Glaucous is a shade of blue-gray found on the surfaces of some plants and animals.

The first recorded use of glaucous as a color name in English was in the year 1671.^[12]

Steel blue

See main article: Steel blue.

Steel blue is a color that resembles blue steel.

The first recorded use of steel blue as a color name in English was in 1817.^[13]

Cadet grey

See main article: Cadet grey.

Cadet grey, shown at right, and cadet blue, are shades of color used in military uniforms.

The first recorded use of cadet grey as a color name in English was in 1912.^[15] Before 1912, the word cadet grey was used as a name for a type of military issue uniform.

Cool gray

Cool gray is a medium light color gray mixed with the color blue.

Another name for this color is gray-blue.

This color is a dull shade of blue-gray.

This color is identical with color sample #203 (identified as "gray blue") at the following website: —The ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colo(u)r Names (1955), a website for stamp collectors to evaluate the colors of their stamps.

Air Force blue

See main article: Air Force blue.

Air force blue is a grayish shade of blue or azure used by the RAF.

There are other tones of air force blue, such as the darker one used by the United States Air Force.

Shadow blue

The color shadow blue is displayed at right. Shadow blue is a color formulated by Crayola in 1990 as one of the colors in its Silver Swirls specialty box of metallic colors.

Although this is supposed to be a metallic color, there is no mechanism for displaying metallic colors on a computer.

Dark blue-gray

The color dark blue-gray is displayed at right.

Roman silver

At right is displayed the color Roman silver.

Roman silver is one of the colors on the Resene Color List, a color list widely popular in Australia and New Zealand.

This color is supposed to be a metallic color; however, there is no mechanism for displaying metallic colors on a flat computer screen.

Rhythm

Displayed at right is the color rhythm.

Rhythm is one of the colors on the Resene Color List, a color list widely popular in Australia and New Zealand. The color "rhythm" was formulated in 2004.

Payne's gray

See main article: Payne's grey.

Payne's gray is a dark blue-gray color used in painting.

The first recorded use of Payne's grey as a color name in English was in 1835.^[22]

Blue-gray in nature

Insects

• Calliphora livida

Arachnids

• Haplopelma lividum

Birds

• Blue-grey gnatcatcher
• Blue-grey tanager

Mammals

• Blue-gray mouse

Blue-gray in culture

Animal husbandry

• Blue Grey is a type of beef cattle popular in Scotland and the north of England.

Medicine/sociology

• Upper-class families who used silver eating utensils every day gradually ingested small pieces of silver into their bodies and eventually developed a mild form of a condition called argyria, in which the skin takes on a blue-gray color; thus, they became known as bluebloods.^[23]

Sports

• The Blue–Gray Football Classic was an annual American college football all-star game held in Alabama usually on Christmas Day. It began in 1939 and was held annually through 2001 at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. It pitted players from the former Confederacy against players from the northern and western states of the United States.

Transportation planning

• In the Muni Metro, San Francisco's light rail system, the K Ingleside line (which goes to the Ingleside neighborhood), is represented by the color blue-gray.

See also

• RAL 5008 Grey blue
• RAL 7031 Blue grey
• List of colors

Notes and References

1. The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called livid in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; Discussion of the color Livid Page 165
2. The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called livid in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; Discussion of the color Livid Page 165
3. Oxford English Dictionary, "livid, adj.", revised 2016.
4. Web site: Retsof online version of ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colo(u)r Names - La through Lz. August 22, 2017. usurped. https://web.archive.org/web/20170822091612/http://tx4.us/nbs/nbs-l.htm . 22 August 2017 .
5. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 197
6. The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called iceberg in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color iceberg is displayed on page 95, Plate 36, Color Sample H4.
7. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 196; Color Sample of Iceberg: Page 95 Plate 36 Color Sample H4
8. Web site: CSS Color Module Level 3. 12 February 2017.
9. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 204; Color Sample of Slate Blue: Page 115 Plate 46 Color Sample A7
10. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 190; Color Sample of Bluebell: Page 97 Plate 37 Color Sample J10
11. Web site: Retsof online version of ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colo(u)r Names - Ga through Gz. November 22, 2012. usurped. https://web.archive.org/web/20121122220332/http://tx4.us/nbs/nbs-g.htm . 22 November 2012 .
12. Encyclopedia: Glaucous, a. . . 2010 .
13. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 205
14. Web site: Retsof online version of ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colo(u)r Names - Ca through Cz. November 22, 2012. usurped. https://web.archive.org/web/20121122220449/http://tx4.us/nbs/nbs-c.htm . 22 November 2012 .
15. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 191; Color Sample of Cadet Grey: Page 95 Plate 36 Color Sample C4
16. Web site: Retsof online version of ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Colo(u)r Names - Ga through Gz. August 10, 2017. usurped. https://web.archive.org/web/20170810183646/http://tx4.us/nbs/nbs-g.htm . 10 August 2017 .
17. http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafiles/F220517C_C37F_4A1E_C1A831E90982A73E.pdf History of the RAF, Chapter 7 – Cultural & Organizational Heritage
18. Web site: nzexplorer.co.nz. nzexplorer.co.nz.
19. Web site: Colour Swatch. Resene Swatches.
20. Web site: NBS/ISCC R - Color Standards and Color Nomenclature. March 1, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120301124330/http://colors.bravo9.com/nbs-iscc-r-color-standards-and-color-nomenclature/list/all/ . 1 March 2012 .
21. Of the various tones of Payne's Grey shown on the indicated web page of the Ridgway color list, the color displayed in the color box above matches most closely the color called Payne's Gray in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color Payne's Gray is displayed on page 117, Plate 47, Color Sample A9.
22. Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 201; Color Sample of Payne's Gray: Page 117 Plate 47 Color Sample A9
23. Alexander, Wesley J. History of the Medical Use of Silver