blue John
UK/ˈbluː dʒɒn/
blue John noun: afterwort, partially fermented wort.
Noun
blue John (uncountable)
- Afterwort, partially fermented wort.
- A semiprecious mineral mined in Derbyshire, a form of fluorite with bands of a purple-blue or yellowish colour.
- Skimmed milk.
- Lee went up front to his icebox and brought back a jar of milk. The cream had been skimmed from it. I said, “This tastes like blue-john to me.”1968, Charles Portis, True Grit
Forms of blue John
| alternative form | bluejohn |
|---|---|
| alternative form | blue john |
| alternative form | blue-john |
| alternative form | blue-John |
| alternative form | Blue John |
Origin of blue John
From blue + John.
Questions about blue John
- What does blue John mean?
- Blue John means afterwort, partially fermented wort.
- What part of speech is blue John?
- Blue John is a noun.
- How do you pronounce blue John?
- Blue John is pronounced /ˈbluː dʒɒn/ (UK).
Words near blue John in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: blue John (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “blue John.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blue_john. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.