Where does “blue peter” come from?
blue peter (English) comes from English Blue, from Middle English blēwe, from Anglo-Norman blew, from Middle French bleu, from Old French blöe, from Latvian blāvus, from Old High German blāo, from Proto-West Germanic blāu — yellow, blond, grey.
blue peter (English): A blue signal flag with a white rectangle in the...
Definitions
- A blue signal flag with a white rectangle in the...
Ancestry of “blue peter”, step by step
blue peter traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Blue
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Blue | A letterman at Oxford or Cambridge; A member of... |
| 2 | Middle English | blēwe | — |
| 3 | Anglo-Norman | blew | blue |
| 4 | Middle French | bleu | blue |
| 5 | Old French | blöe | blue |
| 6 | Latvian | blāvus | accusative plural masculine form of blāvs |
| 7 | Old High German | blāo | blue, dark, grey; blue; yellow |
| 8 | Proto-West Germanic | blāu | blue |
| 9 | Proto-Germanic | blēwaz | blue; a dark bluish or grey colour, black |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰlēw- | yellow, blond, grey |
via English Peter
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Peter | radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter P |
| 2 | Middle English | Peter | Peter |
| 3 | Latin | Petrus | Peter |
| 4 | Indonesian | penembak | shooter |
| 5 | Indonesian | tembak | to shoot to fire a shot |
| 6 | Malay | tembak | to shoot |
| 7 | Malay | timbak | Obsolete form of tembak |
| 8 | Proto-Malayic | timbak | — |
| 9 | Proto-Malayo-Polynesian | ti(m)bak | — |