bluebottle

See also: blue-bottle

English

Alternative forms

• blue-bottle

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English blewbothel, from blew (“blue”) + bothel (“flower in the Asteraceae family”). In sense 2, a shortening of bluebottle fly. The fly was so named because it resembles the bluebottle flower in colour. The other transferred senses likewise have reference to the colour of the respective referents.

Noun

bluebottle (plural bluebottles)

2. A cornflower, a plant that grows in grain fields, Centaurea cyanus.
3. Any of various blowflies of the genus Calliphora that have an iridescent metallic-blue body and make a loud buzzing noise when flying.
   • 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 329:

     The flies that troubled me most were a large kind of blue-bottle or blow-fly. These settled in swarms on my bird skins when first put out to dry, filling their plumage with masses of eggs, which, if neglected, the next day produced maggots.

   • 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".

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.
7. (UK, Australia, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A police officer.
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, 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?

8. (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.

Hypernyms

• blowfly, bottlefly

Coordinate terms

• greenbottle, green-bottle fly

Derived terms

• blue-bottle fly

Translations

blowfly of the genus Calliphora

• Czech: bzučivka f
• Finnish: raatokärpänen (fi)
• German: Schmeißfliege (de) f
• Greek: κρεατόμυγα (el) f (kreatómyga)
• Korean: 검정파리 (geomjeongpari)
• Māori: rango tamumu
• Norman: moûque à vèrs f (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: spyflue m or f

• Polish: plujka (pl) f
• Portuguese: varejeira azul f
• Russian: тру́пная му́ха f (trúpnaja múxa)

cornflower — see cornflower

blue ant — see blue ant

Etymology 2

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

From blue +‎ bottle, in reference to the creature's bottle-like bladder.

Noun

bluebottle (plural bluebottles)

1. 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.

Translations

Portuguese man-of-war — see Portuguese man-of-war