Why We Don’t Wave the “Blue, White, and Red”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, my name is Jan, and I’m in East Central Ohio in Columbiana County, south of Youngstown.

That’s kind of a pointer.

What’s on your mind, Jan?

So I came across something in an email a friend sent me the other day, and she signed off with three heart emojis in the order of red, white, and blue, and then she followed that with a little emoji of the United States flag.

And it got me thinking, I love language. I love the origin of words. I love the nuances of words. I’m a fanatical speller.

And it got me thinking, where did the order of red, white, and blue originate to then distinguish our flag? Why wasn’t it white, blue, red, or something else? Did something happen historically that came to be the general, you know, moniker for our flag is the good old red, white, and blue?

So what say ye?

Okay.

Wisdom have you.

Yeah, we’ve got some wisdom for you, Jan, here. There was a song involved in establishing the color order with the red, white, and blue, but it was much older than that.

There was a song called Columbia, Gem of the Ocean. It was this 1840s ballad that kind of often served as an informal national anthem, and it includes the phrase red, white, and blue 12 times in its verses referring to a flag.

And our reason as an A flag is there’s some dispute as to whether that song was originally British or American. But most reputable sources believe it was originally American and it refers to the U.S. flag.

And this is kind of the fixing of red, white, and blue as the color order. But there’s a couple other things that I want to toss in here, Jan, before we go about why this phrase kind of sticks.

One thing is we say those colors in what’s called a trochaic pattern. That’s T-R-O-C-H-A-I-C. So we stress these certain syllables. It alternates hard and soft consonants with long and short vowel shifts. And so it’s got this internal rhythm to it.

And the other thing is, here’s a very nerdy word for you to take away. There’s a term called handiatris, H-E-N-D-I-A-T-R-I-S. And it comes from ancient Greek, these words meaning one idea through three words.

So Hendiatrist has got this kind of internal strength to it, another kind of internal strength that also makes it memorable. Because we’re expressing this idea of the country and the flag and country of pride and nationalism and all this stuff through these colors. They’re standing in for all these other concepts.

And I studied Greek, but I don’t think I came across that word.

Yeah, it’s a rare one.

There’s one last thing I want to send you away with, Jan. In France, where the national flag is made of the same colors, they order the colors differently. Bleu, blanc, rouge.

Is that right?

Blue, white, red. And that’s because that’s the order they appear on their flag reading left to right. Bleu, blanc, rouge.

Jan, thank you so much for spending some time with us.

Thank you so much. I really, really love your show. I truly do.

All right. You take care now.

All right. Thanks so much.

Bye.

Thanks, Jen.

Bye.

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