blues. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

blues

PRONUNCIATION:	blz
PLURAL NOUN:	(used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1. A state of depression or melancholy. Often used with the. 2. A style of music evolved from southern African-American secular songs and usually distinguished by a syncopated 4/4 rhythm, flatted thirds and sevenths, a 12-bar structure, and lyrics in a three-line stanza in which the second line repeats the first: “The blues is an expression of anger against shame and humiliation” (B.B. King, Essence November 1996).
ETYMOLOGY:	Short for blue devils.
OTHER FORMS:	bluesman —NOUN bluesy —ADJECTIVE


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.