Fear Dubh in Irish means the devil, literal translation is black man.
Fear gorm, in Irish means black man, literal translation is blue man.
So in Irish black man = devil. Blue man = black man.
I went down a google rabbit hole on this a while ago trying to find anything I could about why black people are blue in Irish.
It is true that “**The** Black Man” would be the devil.
But “fear dubh” (without the “the”) would traditionally imply a black **haired** person or someone dressed all in black. (Don’t think you’d get this in modern usage)
That is where the surname Duff/Duffy comes from.
So there likely wasn’t an aversion to calling people black because of confusion with the devil.
There isn’t a record for why black people are “daoine gorma” in Irish. It’s unlikely to be just because of one name for the devil and it doesn’t really explain why blue.
My favourite possible explanation is that the earliest black men that the early Irish met could maybe have been the Tuaregs (and there is actually DNA evidence that they reached as far as Scotland and Ireland) And from wiki:
>The Tuaregs have been called the “blue people” for the indigo dye coloured clothes they traditionally wear and which stains their skin.
This is circumstantial though, no real textual evidence. But there’s also no real evidence that it was all about avoiding the phrase “The Black Man.” (Also in that case why not just use brown not blue.)
Another possibility I’ve seen is that some black things in nature do have a blue tint to them but I don’t like that hypothesis because that doesn’t really apply to human skin so there’s extra steps.
Whatever you’re trying to say, it’s bad form. Try and do better man.
6 comments
What ever happend to the blue man group.
I don’t get it, can you explain?
duine gorm
Fear Dubh in Irish means the devil, literal translation is black man.
Fear gorm, in Irish means black man, literal translation is blue man.
So in Irish black man = devil. Blue man = black man.
I went down a google rabbit hole on this a while ago trying to find anything I could about why black people are blue in Irish.
It is true that “**The** Black Man” would be the devil.
But “fear dubh” (without the “the”) would traditionally imply a black **haired** person or someone dressed all in black. (Don’t think you’d get this in modern usage)
That is where the surname Duff/Duffy comes from.
So there likely wasn’t an aversion to calling people black because of confusion with the devil.
There isn’t a record for why black people are “daoine gorma” in Irish. It’s unlikely to be just because of one name for the devil and it doesn’t really explain why blue.
My favourite possible explanation is that the earliest black men that the early Irish met could maybe have been the Tuaregs (and there is actually DNA evidence that they reached as far as Scotland and Ireland) And from wiki:
>The Tuaregs have been called the “blue people” for the indigo dye coloured clothes they traditionally wear and which stains their skin.
This is circumstantial though, no real textual evidence. But there’s also no real evidence that it was all about avoiding the phrase “The Black Man.” (Also in that case why not just use brown not blue.)
Another possibility I’ve seen is that some black things in nature do have a blue tint to them but I don’t like that hypothesis because that doesn’t really apply to human skin so there’s extra steps.
Whatever you’re trying to say, it’s bad form. Try and do better man.