cobalt blue

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a strong, vivid blue color, often with a slightly greenish cast

   The evening sky deepened from pale azure to cobalt blue.

2. 2
   noun

   a stable blue artist's pigment consisting chiefly of cobalt aluminate, made from compounds of cobalt and aluminum

   The conservator identified cobalt blue in the nineteenth-century painted sky.

3. 3
   adj

   having the strong blue color associated with cobalt-blue pigment

   A cobalt-blue border made the white porcelain appear brighter.

A compound of cobalt and blue, first naming a cobalt-based pigment and then its characteristic color. Cobalt comes from German Kobalt, related to Kobold, 'goblin' or 'evil spirit,' a miners' name for troublesome ores. The durable modern pigment is cobalt aluminate, developed for practical manufacture in the early nineteenth century.

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