Englishout of the blue
Meaning: Suddenly and unexpectedly.
Example: “Out of the blue, my old teacher sent me a letter.”
Equivalents in other languages
Ukrainian: Як сніг на голову (Yak snih na holovu) Literally: Like snow on the head
French: De but en blanc Literally: From butt to white- French: Sans crier gare Literally: Without crying look-out
Origin: A shortened form of the fuller "a bolt out of the blue," using "the blue" for a clear, cloudless sky — precisely the conditions under which lightning would be least expected, making a bolt striking from one an image of the truly unforeseeable. The full phrase was very likely already circulating before its first documented appearance in 1837, and the shortened "out of the blue" is on record by 1879, in an issue of The Spectator. Both versions describe the same thing: an event with no visible warning sign beforehand, arriving as suddenly and unpredictably as lightning from an apparently empty sky.
More English idioms
- over the top Beyond expectations; outside normal or accepted boundaries; exaggerated.
- past one's prime Too old to be of much value.
- the patience of Job Unlimited patience; the willingness to endure hardship patiently.
- pay the piper To pay for one's mistakes; to live with the consequences of one's (wrong) actions.
- pencil pusher An office worker; a bureaucrat who routinely does his or her paperwork job without any de…
- penny pincher A person that doesn't like to spend money.
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Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
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