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The reason he was known as Harald Blåtann (Bluetooth) was as mentioned that he had a dead tooth. These are normally black, not blue, but old norse did not disti
by alephnil 5y ago
The reason he was known as Harald Blåtann (Bluetooth) was as mentioned that he had a dead tooth. These are normally black, not blue, but old norse did not distinguish between black and blue, thus the name.
- matsemann 5y agoAs a Norwegian speaking guy, I used to say "blåtann" instead of "bluetooth" as a joke when I was a teenager. Because I found the direct translation funny. Didn't know at the time that I was actually somewhat "correct".
- norenh 5y agoSwedish guy here, can confirm that it was often called "Blåtand" in various circumstances in Sweden at the time (20ish years ago). I have worked with Ericsson-employees who also called it "Blåtand" but nowadays it is less common and "Bluetooth" has taken over as the way to refer to it here.
- adunk 5y agoThe story I heard some 20ish years ago was that the Blåtand name was so popular inside Ericsson that employees were actively encouraged to use the name Bluetooth and not Blåtand. At the time, "everyone" called it Blåtand, outside of Ericsson too. I agree that people in Sweden just tend to call it Bluetooth nowadays.
- Moru 5y agoAmong older people I still hear Blåtand now and then. Some of them think they are funny, some knows why :-)
- xdennis 5y agoThis dead tooth (top right) looks pretty blue to me: https://tracewellness.com/what-does-dead-tooth-look-like/ https://tracewellness.com/what-does-dead-tooth-look-like/ (careful, you might not like to see these images).
- eli 5y agoMany ancient languages lacked a word for blue. It doesn't occur very often in nature.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- octopoc 5y agoThe sky is blue and so is the ocean
- eli 5y agoIt's a fascinating phenomenon, right? Worth noting the "blue" in both those examples comes from physics not pigments.
- NoSorryCannot 5y agoThe reason pigments or anything else is blue is also because of physics.
- dTal 5y agohttps://xkcd.com/1818/ https://xkcd.com/1818/
- Agentlien 5y agoA friend of mine once claimed that the sky wasn't blue. I challenged him, expecting some argument about physics and Rayleigh scattering. Instead he looked at me and, with a straight face, said "it's the spy satellites which are blue. And there are very many."
- pengstrom 5y agoWhile true, it might be worth noting that if you grind iridescent blue material it will loose its color. Pigment will not.
- jsnodlin 5y agoHow interesting. Neither did Sanskrit in India. All the darker skinned people in Indian mythology are depicted as blue— Krishna, Ram, Shiva, Valmiki, Ved Vyas etc. Probably some PIE remnant.