As much as it sucks, it's a feeling we all experience, once in a while. For whatever reason, we all have felt sad or in other words we've all been 'blue'. While it is common knowledge that it means feeling sad, sorrowed, depressed and a whole bunch of other gut-wrenching emotions, we've never questioned the association. Why would we use a colour to describe our feeling? So what is it with the colour blue? Why is it associated with feeling sad?

Let's move on to the 14th century. In 1385, poet Geoffrey Chaucer used 'blewe' in his poem "The Complaint of Mars".  He writes:

"Wyth teres blewe and with a wounded herte."

Which basically translates to: "With tears blue and with a wounded heart"

The explanation here is simple. Blue is associated to tears and hence, sadness.

Source: biography

A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) states Blue to mean - to look blue; to be confounded, terrified, or disappointed. More importantly, it states that Blue Devils means low spirits. Again establishing that blue is related to being low.



Similarly, according to the Dictionary of Americanisms (1848), Blue means - Gloomy, severe; extreme, ultra. And Blue Devils here too has been stated to mean low spirits.