a French folk etymology: bleu-jaune

[Mark Mandel]

We visited New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art Saturday and had a
great, if tiring, time.

There's an exhibit there of "Pietre Dure", hard stone art in Europe:
inlays, sculpture, mosaics, etc. One lovely item was a pair of perfume
burners (61.101.1633,1634, catalog #138), made of "an intensely blue
Derbyshire fluorspar commonly known as 'blue john'. ... It became
popular among the nobility of France, where it was known as
'bleu-jaune'." (Mostly exact quotation with connecting bits of
paraphrase.)

"Bleu-jaune" is literally 'blue - yellow', which makes no sense at all
for this intense deep blue color. :-)

--
Mark Mandel

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