Meaning
Covered in bruises, or beaten severely enough to leave them; of a person, 'beaten black and blue'. Bruises darken through livid to blackish and bluish as they heal, which is the whole of the literal image. It also works figuratively for anything battered by repeated blows, financial or emotional. Neutral register; usually literal or physical, with figurative use suggesting rough handling by events. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The phrase is genuinely medieval: Dictionary.com dates 'black and blue' to Middle English 1300-50, and Wiktionary derives it from Middle English 'blak and blo' and 'blac and bla', used of dark, livid, bruised flesh. So the Middle Ages-era anchor holds, though claims of an exact citation in Chaucer are not confirmed by the sources consulted here. The best-known early literary use is Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor (c. 1600), where Mistress Ford is said to have been 'beaten black and blue', a passage later quoted in 19th-century American slang dictionaries as evidence the expression was shared between England and America. The survival of the formula is notable because real bruises are rarely literally black; the pairing simply fixes the two darkest colours the imagination assigns to a bad contusion.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- beat someone black and blue
- black and blue all over
- black-and-blue (attributive)
- bruised black and blue
Usage Examples
- After falling down the cellar steps, her hip was black and blue for a fortnight.
- The portfolio emerged from the crash more bruised in pride than black and blue in value.
- He came home black and blue from his first rugby practice, grinning anyway.