(urth) Urth Digest, Vol 112, Issue 21

[Jeff Wilson]

On Mon, December 16, 2013 21:51, Eric Bourland wrote:
> Blue of cheek ... pale. That is how I read it. Since Severian is unusually
> pale, I would suppose she would be commenting on that paleness. In certain
> wan light the cheek might look blue.

A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant Embracing English, American ...,
Volume 1
 edited by Albert Barrère, Charles Godfrey Leland (1897) cites Outcasts of
London by J. Greenwood for blue cheek as a style of wearing whiskers,
shaved but leaving enough to color the cheek.

Pale skin is also given to being called blue when chilled, but the cheeks
are usually the last place in that condition, IMO.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - < jwilson at clueland.com >
A&M Texarkana Computational Intelligence Lab
< http://www.tamut.edu/cil >