Petrol Blue
For a long time I have had a secret obsession with the term ‘petrol’ as applied to a certain shade of blue. I always thought it sounded a little affected – you know how pretentious those colour-forecasters are.
However the notion was strangely attractive to me. Petrol is not universally thought of as something pretty (particularly as it has been the catalyst for war in latter years). Something unattractive describes an object that is beautiful: like the ugliness that is prized for its sheer disparity and courage in the face of a world that is obsessed with youth and beauty.
A pair of David Lawrence peeptoes out of my own wardrobe… and could my bedspread be described as petrol too? (Cllick on image for larger version.)I have a leather coat that I always described to myself as petrol blue, without really knowing if it was. There is some controversy about the word’s spelling: the OED defines it as a shade of greenish or greyish blue. Apart from discovering here that the appellation was first coined in the 1940s by the British Colour Council, Wiktionary has this to say:
Many people erroneously believe that this is a misspelling of ‘petrel’ blue, and that the term refers to the sea bird. However, the OED gives only this spelling. The term may originally have pertained to petrol-derived compounds such as paraffin, which is often coloured blue.
Most likely the word ‘petrol’, which describes a colour of bluish green, is derived etymologically from the word ‘petroleum’ (crude oil). Petroleum varies greatly in colour, some are colourless, many of them are of nice bluish green colour.
Certainly my coat falls under this description. Consulting that oracle Google, I find a few more things petrol-coloured blue, below.
(Clockwise from left) A swatch of petrol blue; 1965 Jaguar Mk2 from greatescapecars.co.uk; glass vases from copenhagenfurniture.net; three strap pumps by Vivienne Westwood; Spectrum staggered drawers from dwell.co.uk; fresh water pearl studs with petrol blue ‘button’ drop from hamiltonandinches.com; a living room with touches of petrol blue from channel4.com; extra fine merino wool from thelittleknittingcompany.co.uk.N.B. I thought it rather apt to place myself against a backdrop of the Middle-Eastern desert. I took this photo after a wild 4-wheel drive across the dunes in Dubai in December 2008.