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bluebottle

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See also: blue-bottle

English

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Bluebottle (marine jelly of the genus Physalia) washed ashore at Batemans Bay, New South Wales, Australia

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From blue +‎ bottle,[1] after the resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles. In sense 3 (cornflower), via Middle English blewbothel. Sense 6 (police officer) is in reference to the colour of the uniform.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bluebottle (plural bluebottles)

  1. Any of various blowflies of the genus Calliphora that have an iridescent metallic-blue body and make a loud buzzing noise when flying.
    • 1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page i. 16:
      The incredibly long body as well as the extended wings were of a gleaming purplish-gray colour: I can only liken it to that of a meat fly or common "bluebottle".
  2. A marine jellyfish of the genus Physalia, which includes Physalia physalis, the Portuguese man-of-war, and Physalia utriculus, the Pacific man-of-war; a man-of-war.
  3. A cornflower, a plant that grows in grain fields, Centaurea cyanus, with blue flowers resembling bottles.
  4. A blue ant, Diamma bicolor, a parasitic wasp native to Australia.
  5. Any of various large papilionid butterflies of the genus Graphium, also called triangles, etc.
  6. (UK, Australia, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A police officer.
    • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, []”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi]:
      I will have you as soundly swing’d for this, you bluebottle rogue!
    • 1878, Charles Hindley, The life and times of James Catnach, page 206:
      [] comic writers [] have never failed to make capital out of the New Police, Peel's Raw-Lobsters, Peelers, Blue Bottles, &c., &c.
    • 1882, Henry Herman, Henry Arthur Jones, The Silver King:
      COOMBE: He got the clinch only last week — eighteen months. You see it's no good having anybody here as ain't got a[sic] unblemished character. We don't want to have the bluebottles come sniffing round here, do we?
  7. (derogatory, obsolete) A bluestocking.
    • 1813, Lord G. G. Byron, edited by Rowland E. Prothero, The Works Of Lord Byron Letters And Journals Vol II[1], page 358:
      To-morrow there is a party of purple at the “blue” Miss Berry’s. Shall I go? um! — I don’t much affect your blue-bottles ; — but one ought to be civil.
    • 1846 February 22, “Letter from Spranger Barry, Esq.”, in Sunday Dispatch (New York)[2], page 2, Column 6:
      There appears to be a growing disposition on the part of the literary and dramatic blue-bottles of this city to get up a national drama and to manufacture a new race of actors.
    • 1853 January 29, Geo. F. Pardon, “Common People”, in The Working Man’s Friend[3], page 282:
      ..and did not the rich dowager-countess Bluebottle marry her footman, who forthwith became a lord and was made a privy counsellor.
    • 1922 December, Simon Pure, “The Londoner”, in The Bookman[4]:
      There are many literary bluebottles — those who feed upon the remains of literature and buzz about the heads of those who are yet alive in this domain.

Hypernyms

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Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ bluebottle, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.