Etymology Journal ยท O
Out of the blue
Meaning
- Something that happens totally unexpectedly. It suggests an event arrived without any clouds or warning signs.
Surprised, descriptive
Used in a sentence
- She called me out of the blue to ask about the old neighborhood.
- An offer for the house came out of the blue yesterday.
- I ran into an old classmate at the store completely out of the blue.
The backstory
The phrase comes from the idea of a bolt of lightning coming from a clear blue sky. It implies an event so surprising it feels like a natural anomaly.
Heard in
Nationwide
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