French folk etymology: bleu-jaune

[Mark Mandel]

On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 9:21 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

> If anyone asserts "blue john" > "bleu[e] jaune", he should present an
> example of French "bleu[e] jaune" in appropriate sense, preferably
> post-1772.
>
> I cannot refute either of these assertions, but where is the evidence
> that "bleu[e]-jaune" was ever a French term for any mineral? (Of course
> offhand factoids, presented e.g. in guidebooks or on the Web, are not
> really evidence.)

I have no more formal evidence -- I think -- but the start of this
thread quotes my older post, in which I referred to a label in an
exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC:

> >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.)

Mark A. Mandel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org