People use colour expressions to show their feelings and describe the world. Many colour-related phrases（词组）are common in our speech. Let’s see where they came from.
•The Blues
The phrase is a short form of “the blue devils（魔鬼）”, which also stands for sad feelings. This expression is also used to describe a type of jazz（爵士）music that became popular in the south of America in the 1940s.
•Black Sheep of the Family
The phrase refers to（指的是）a member of a family or a group who is unacceptable. In the old days, the black sheep were sold at a lower price than the white ones at the market, because their fleece（羊毛）could not be coloured. This made the black sheep an unwelcome member of the group.
•A Red-letter Day
A Red-letter Day is a day when something really exciting and memorable（难忘的）happens. It came from the practice of marking special western days, holidays, or other festivals in red on the calendar. Today, some calendars still use red numbers for special holidays, even weekends.
Colour Expressions to Show Feelings and Describe the World | |
The Blues | This phrase is used to describe both a kind of feeling and a kind of |
Black sheep of the family | If a person is not |
| A red-letter day is often a memorable and | |
